First of all, I’d like to really apologise for getting a little behind on my blogging, ok, maybe a lot behind…  But it’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks, so please bear with me.  To be honest, I’ve started writing this blog entry probably ten times now, but its always been at a train station or a bus stop or something, and I always seem to be interrupted before I can get anything meaningful out of my head and onto my laptop.  But this time, it’s going to happen.

Lets see, that little teaser post aside, I haven’t posted since I got back from Byron Bay.  Well, let me tell you that A LOT has happened since then!  In chronological order: I spent a week with Toby at his house in Armidale, took an exam, flew to Tasmania, submitted a paper from a campground, spent 2 nights backpacking in the snow, barely made it back to Brisbane between volcanic ash clouds, took two more exams, flew to New York, got finger printed and drug tested (don’t worry – I passed both) in preparation for my summer internship, which started two days later.  That Friday, I flew down to Dallas after work, and drove back up to New York in time to unpack my car into my apartment.  After working all week, I spent the weekend in Boston, driving both ways.      It’s been a little hectic to say the least.  But now that things are starting to slow down, ever so slightly, I decided I had better update y’all!

I guess where I left off would be a good place to pick up.  To make all this more digestible, I’ll try to split all this catching up into a few blog entries.  I’ll cover my trip to Toby’s house in this one.  The week following my return from Byron was pretty uneventful, although it was my last week of classes, which made me a little sad, because I started to realise just how little time I had left in Oz.  The highlight of the week was definitely the Faculty of Business Economics and Law’s study abroad departure meeting.  Not only did we get nifty polo shirts and free Aussie food, but the school also hired a critterman to entertain us with all kind of strange Aussie fauna.   Although the wombat was pretty funny, I think my favourite was probably the blonde possum.  Isn’t it so cute?

I also realised that I really couldn’t leave Oz without attending at least one rugby game, and time was getting short, so I decided to watch the Queensland Reds play a game at Suncorp Stadium.  I’ll admit that I didn’t completely understand what was going on, but the penalties were hilarious.  I think my favourite was “failing to remain on feet”.  I kept thinking “What do you expect?  Did you see the size of the guy that just ran into him??  He was THROWN off his feet!”.  A few of those gems are below:

I also found a YouTube video of the game, if you’re curious.  Its the highlights reel of two games that season.  The game I watched is the second one and starts halfway through.  Among the highlights of the highlights were a few improbably tries (touchdowns) and, unfortunately, a pretty serious knockout.

The rest of the week was pretty tame as I just tried to prepare for my various exams and papers and the like before I caught a bus down to Armidale to meet up with Toby.  Brisbane to Armidale is roughly seven hours, and it’s an overnight bus.  But, I was determined to stay awake so that I could make a speedy exit when the bus got to my stop, to save everyone else from waiting (I was the only one getting off there).  Great idea, terrible execution.  Despite my best efforts, I ended up falling asleep probably 10 minutes before my stop, and didn’t wake up until the bus pulled over on the side of the road.  In my sleepy state, I managed to leave both my favourite hat and my headphones on the bus, and didn’t realise it until it was too late.  It’s a little sad, but I miss that $5 hat more than my noise cancelling headphones.  That was the hat I ran the Boston Marathon in, and it has hours of sweat equity in it from working at my farm in Texas.  So if anybody happens to see a greasy, beat up, red Tractor Supply Company hat on a Greyhound bus in Australia, you know who to call.  I really would like it back…

Actually, that’s not wholly true.  At the risk of getting a little too philosophical about something that really doesn’t deserve so much thought, I guess its kind of fitting that the hat left with such a cool story.  I mean as far as hat-stories go, its hard to beat being left on an overnight bus in a country halfway around the world.   I mean, if I hadn’t lost it, it would have probably ended up on a shelf collecting dust somewhere, too sentimental to throw away or to continue to use.

The next morning, after arriving in Armidale, I had to earn my keep.  After a brekkie of Vegemite on toast (I hate to admit it, but its been growing on me…) we had to shift some cattle around.  Did I mention that Toby’s Scottish Highland Cattle are some of the cutest cattle that I’ve seen in a while?  How could you not love that face?

After we moved ‘em all around, Toby and I decided to go rock climbing.  If you’ve read my other entries, you know that Toby and I have climbed before, but never quite like this.  Let me explain, when we got to the rock face, that’s all there was — a rock face.  There were no safety anchors; there were no other people; there wasn’t even a trail.  But, fortunately, it wasn’t particularly steep, and I had (and still have) a great amount of trust in Toby’s ability to keep us both alive.  As the better climber, he led the way, setting pieces of safety protection along the way.  When we ran out of rope, he found a nice little ledge, about halfway up, anchored himself in, and then I climbed up the way he had, removing the protection as I went.

When I reached his little perch, we both got re-situated, and repeated the process of him climbing while I half sat there, half hung in my harness, belaying him.  Once he got to the top, I again climbed his route, cleaning the gear out along the way.  As I neared the top, I grabbed a large piece of granite and discovered something very interesting.  It was loose!  I had enough strength to hold it in place until I was sure that Toby and I were both out of the way.  I yelled “ROCK!”, and let it go.  I watched in horror as this rock, which probably weighed a good 40 pounds, tumbled down the face, tearing through both places where I had been belaying Toby from minutes earlier.  If Toby had knocked that rock loose, I don’t want to think what have might happened to me.  But I guess climbing is like anything else in life.  You recognise the risks, take the appropriate precautions (we were both wearing helmets and had good equipment), and then go out and live your life.  We got back to Toby’s house a few minutes after dark, just in time for a fantastic dinner, courtesy of Toby’s mom.

The next morning, we got up early to do a little more farm work.  I found out that the reason we had moved the cattle the day before was because Aragon, Toby’s bull, had been sold, and needed to be separated out so that he could be loaded onto a truck.  Fortunately for Aragon, he’s more valuable as a stud bull than as hamburger…

After packing some lunches, Toby broke out one of his climbing books, handed it to me, and said something like “how about that one?” and pointed to a climb called “Flight of the Bumbly”.  According to the guidebook, it’s just shy of 150 feet long.  If you’re curious, you can read the actual guidebook here.

When we got there, I realised that 150 feet is a lot higher than it sounds.  Because there wasn’t any easy access to the bottom, we decided the best way to attack the climb was by top-roping it.  Basically, Toby built a really bomber anchor using the two existing bolts, a tree, a cam, and a giant hexcentric (basically a big metal chock) and then descended down the rope.  The interesting thing was that he wasn’t positive that his rope was long enough to reach the bottom, so for safety, he tied the end of it into his harness.  That way, no matter what, he wouldn’t slide off the end.  As he descended, he disappeared through the trees and I lost sight of him.  But eventually, the rope went loose, which meant he was probably on the ground.  Interestingly, I discovered that I couldn’t understand what he was saying (the echoes were too bad) from where I was, so we basically had to do everything by feel.  It was kind of scary, but a very neat experience.  Once I had readjusted the ropes to put Toby on belay, I tightened up the rope, so he knew I had him and that he could start climbing.  As the day progressed, I could keep track of Toby’s progress by how often the rope went slack.  I couldn’t see him, but the more slack there was, the faster he was climbing.  Then, all of the sudden, it went really tight, and stayed that way.  After about 10 minutes with no progress, I started to worry if something bad had happened.  I was actually starting to tie him off so I could go get help when I noticed that the rope had gone slack again!  Within short order, Toby was back on the ledge and I decided to take a crack at the climb.  Partly because it was getting dark, and partly because I am a much inferior climber, I only went down half way before climbing back up.  Good thing too, because I still didn’t finish until it was well into dusk.

The climb starts on the face behind Toby

By the way, as it turned out, the reason why the rope went so tight was because Toby had climbed up under an overhang, and then slipped off the face, which left him hanging in mid air by the rope, unable to reach the bottom, the top, or the wall of the cliff.  With only one option, he pulled out two prussic cords (little cords that, when used with a special knot, grip the rope), and more or less shrimped his way up the rope until he was back on the rock face.  Ascending ropes isn’t pretty, but that doesn’t make it any less of a necessary skill.  At any rate, after another home cooked meal, Toby and I retired to our rooms for some well needed rest…

The next day (and my last full day in Armidale) was a little more relaxed than the previous ones.  Toby and I spent some time puttering around his far on a quad bike (or 4-wheeler, depending on where you’re from), before meeting one of his friends in town for coffee and a meat pie (I went for the steak and kidney…).  By the way, did I mention that Toby is also a volunteer fire-fighter?  The more I get to know this kid, the more respect I have for him.  Anyway, he must have figured out that I liked trucks, because he took me by the fire department’s garage so I could play around on the fire trucks.  I’m nearly 22 years old now, and I still like playing with fire trucks…

As my time in Armidale, and indeed Australia, was wrapping up, Toby decided he had one more adventure up his sleeve for me: mountain biking on a trail that he had made.  Toby comes for a family of mountain bikers, so I got to ride his father’s bike.  I don’t know a lot about bikes, but I know enough to know that this one was nice: extra-fat tires, clip in pedals, hydraulic disc brakes, carbon fibre frame, dual suspension, and the list went on.  I was afraid to crash… not because I might get injured, but because IT might get injured.  Fortunately, we both came out unscathed (barely – it was my first foray into clip pedals – through a forest, at dusk, no less) and it was a great end to my stay in Armidale.  The next morning, we all got up early, packed a few sandwiches, and off we went back to UQ and back into the real world of studying for exams.  But that’s the topic of my next blog…

Again, sorry for the delay in getting this one online.  As things continue to settle down, I’ll try my best to get back to my normal publishing schedule.

Here are a few other photos from the trip.  The first two are Toby’s.  Absolutely beautiful photos.  The lighting was perfect and the composure is top notch!

Toby's Photo. Look at that buttery background! (I was borrowing Toby's Father's micro lens on my D80) - His father bought the lens to photograph sea slugs for his PhD thesis!

Toby's Photo

Thanks again for reading!

Cheers,

-Isaac Freeman

Sorry for being a little slow to post recently, with the end of the semester getting closer, things are getting a little bit hectic, especially as I’m trying to plan all of my last minute adventures (hold tight for Armidale and Tasmania)!

Everybody had been telling me that I absolutely HAD to see Byron Bay.  Even my Lonely Planet guide says, “Byron Bay’s reputation precedes it like no other place in Australia: it’s a gorgeous town where the trademark laid-back, New Age populace lives an escapist, organic lifestyle against a backdrop of evergreen hinterland and never-ending surfable coastline,” (Vaisutis et al, 195).  And since it’s only a two-hour bus-ride away, how could I pass it up?  So I booked my bus, packed my bag, and off I went exploring.

When I got off the bus on Saturday morning, sure enough, it was pretty groovy. There were more dreadlocks, hippies, and backpackers than I could shake a stick at – there were even advertisements for professional dreadlockers!

The shoeless-by-choice-not-necessity were out in full force, and a rainbow-painted tour bus drove by pumping all kinds of groovy tunes.  Coming from Brisbane, it was a sight to behold.  It was drizzling though, so I wanted to get to my hostel before my pack got wet.  After dropping my stuff off in my room, I went exploring around town.  Byron did not cease to amaze me.  As I was walking down the main street, I noticed a couple, who I don’t think were wearing anything that wasn’t organic and sustainable, walking in the other direction.  But what surprised me most was that the woman was breast-feeding her child while walking down the street.  Don’t get me wrong, breastfeeding is a healthy and natural thing, and I have no objection to breastfeeding in public.  I was just a little surprised that this woman chose to do it while walking down the main tourist drag.  But hey, more power to her!  My next ‘welcome to Byron’ was at Subway – after making my meat-containing sub, the sandwich artist (I think that’s what Subway calls them) went to go put the vegetables on the sandwich belonging to the woman in front me (which was an avocado and cheese sandwich).  At any rate, the woman requested that the artist change her gloves before proceeding.  Again, I’ve got no problem with vegetarianism and veganism.  I think that both are legitimate and very healthy alternative diets, but I’ve just never experienced that at Subway before.  It was eye opening, and helped me appreciate just how hard it is in Western society to have any sort of dietary restrictions (be they veganism, gluten-intolerance, allergies, etc…).

After lunch, I headed out to the beach for an afternoon of ocean kayaking.  I’d never done anything like it before, but it was an absolute blast!  The surf was just rough enough to be fun but not rough enough to be dangerous.  We even saw wild dolphins playing in the waves.  It was incredibly fun, but after only a few hours, I was totally exhausted.  After a snack of chocolate ‘bikkies’ and hot cocoa, we headed back to the beach to pack up the kayaks.

Earlier in the day, I had seen poster advertising a free African Drumming Festival, so I figured I’d check it out.  It ended up being pretty relaxed but a lot of fun – typical Byron I guess.

He was just lit up like that - it was cool.

After the festival, I headed back to the hostel to get a good night’s rest.  The eastern-most point of mainland Australia was less than an hour’s walk away, and I wanted to catch sunrise there.  So at 4:30 am, I got up, quietly got my things together, and headed out to catch sunrise and see the Cape Byron Lighthouse.  It was still pitch dark when I got there, so I checked out the lighthouse and headed over to the easternmost point.  I had the place all to myself.  It was stunningly beautiful, and a real treat.  Unfortunately, it was a little cloudy so the photos aren’t great, but it was still a lot of fun.  I forget how gorgeous everything is in the morning sun!

The stars in the morning sky were so cool!

The Cape Byron Lighthouse

Captain Cook's Lookout

Captain Cook’s Lookout (above), overlooks one of the better surfing spots (or so I am told - its not for beginners) in Australia, The Pass.  I spotted this guy from the lookout in the picture above.  The first picture shows how good he is - he rode that wave all the way onto the beach, hundreds of feet away.  I just thought the second shot was funny.

I spent the rest of the morning checking out all the cool little shops and just generally scoping out the scene.

Bubbles!

After a meat pie for lunch, I took a surfing lesson!  Let’s just say I don’t think that I should quit my day job.  It was a lot of fun, but I wasn’t very good, especially not at the looking cool part.  I did manage to catch a few waves though, which was pretty neat.  After a few hours, it started to get a little later in the afternoon, and I started to notice that more seabirds were hanging around and diving.  I didn’t think anything of it until my instructor was like (read this extremely slowly for full effect) “Hey dudes, we should probably head back to the beach pretty soon, yeah?  See all the birds, man?  Yeah, the birds mean that there are probably like a school of little fishes around.  And little fishes generally attract bigger fishes, which attract… yeah, lets head in pretty soon guys, that cool?”  OK, so maybe he didn’t sound quite that surfer-ey, but he was a great teacher and a lot of fun.  Everybody in my group caught multiple waves, and we finished just in time for me to grab a quick meal of fish and chips on the beach before catching the Greyhound bus back to Brisbane.

So to re-cap: Byron isn’t quite my scene: I tend to be a little more mountain-ey, a little less beach-ey, and not quite so laid back, but it was certainly a beautiful spot, and I’m really glad I had a chance to visit!  But you should totally see it for yourself, man.

Thanks for reading!

-Isaac Freeman

Strange graffiti

Ok, so that last photo isn’t Byron-ey at all, but I saw it there, and I have a soft spot for these trucks.  Check out that snorkel!  I wanted to get one of those snorkels for the Ford Excursion I learned to drive on, but they only fit the 7.3l diesel (like this truck), the one I learned to drive on had a petrol engine…

Yoga on the Beach - typical Bryon

I thought the wave was cool

"love"

Thanks for reading

In the interest of academic honesty, I used a direct quote, so here’s the citation:

Vaisutis, Justine, et al. Lonely Planet: Australia. 15^th ed. Melbourne: Lonely Planet, 2009. Print.

To follow up on my koala photo post, I decided that I aught to post up a few more of my photos from my visit to Steve Irwin’s Australia zoo. This was really a special treat for me. When I was little, I absolutely adored The Crocodile Hunter. In fact, that show was, in large part, what began my fascination with Australia. I was such a fan that I even sent Steve a postcard when I was little, and got this one back from his wife Terri. You can tell how old it is from the name (they renamed the park the Australia Zoo).

But other than that, I think the photos of cute critters are pretty self-explanatory. I will say though, that it is an absolutely incredible zoo, and the Crocoseum (the stadium where crocodile demonstrations are held) makes it extra exciting. You can really see Steve’s vision to create a park that would help people learn to appreciate Australia’s top predator. The zoo really is a must-see for anybody visiting Australia. I took way too many photos to post them all, but I hope this gives an idea of the quality of the zoo. As always, feel free to comment!

Cheers,

-Isaac Freeman

The Common Wombat

I don't know what type of bird this is, but it was colourful, so I took a picture.

The was the official "cuddling koala" from the last post.

Too cute.

Echidnas! These little mammals are some of the few that lay eggs.

The Crocoseum

A Black Cockatoo

The Tasmanian 'Devil'

Hey Guys,

So I’m back from my weekend in Byron Bay, and I’ve got heaps of stuff to write about. Unfortunately, I also have heaps of homework to do, but I’ll definitely to have my blog entry up sometime later in the week. In the mean time, here’s a photo for y’all! I don’t know why, but I can’t stop laughing…

Friendly Koala at the Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo

Cheers,

Isaac Freeman

I’m back from Sydney, and quite looking forward to this blog entry! To be honest, I’m not quite sure where all this excitement has come from. This is my first crack at blogging, but I’ve grown rather fond of it. More so than I had anticipated. It’s good though, because it keeps me motivated to do fun things so I don’t have to write boring entries! Speaking of which, I guess I should stop rambling and get to the interesting stuff!

Well, actually before I start, I do want to say one thing. I was part of a student panel last week on behalf of UQ, where I had the chance to talk a little bit about my study abroad experience and field questions from study abroad professionals visiting from back in the states. I’m probably a good representative because I THINK AUSTRALIA IS SO AWESOME! I’m having an absolutely incredible time here. The weather, the people, the nature! It’s all stunning, and I’m trying to fit in as many trips as I can before I have to leave. But, as this semester starts to wind down, I’m also starting to get a little excited about heading home. I miss my family, my girlfriend, my friends, my pets, and my state. It turned out that one of the women I spoke with at the panel was from one of the big universities in Texas, where my sister is currently a student. But, the actual school was largely irrelevant; she was the closest link I’ve had to Texas in some time (she even said y’all!), and it made me a little nostalgic for my home state. Don’t get me wrong; I go to school in Massachusetts and I’ll will be interning in New York this summer. All the states are great but I’ll always have a soft spot for Texas.

Ok, now that I’ve had my moment, I’m ready go get back to Sydney!

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but at any rate, I’m currently interning at a merchant bank here in Brisbane, so I couldn’t leave until after work on Friday. Fortunately though, it was casual Friday, so I was already wearing jeans and my cowboy boots (can you tell I was feeling a little nostalgic?) when I left the office to head straight for the airport (no time to stop at home). In hindsight the boots were probably a bad idea actually, just because they didn’t fit in my backpack, but oh well.

My flight was basically uneventful, and the Jet Star faux-leather seats were surprisingly comfy for a budget airliner. After landing, I hopped on a train to central station, where I walked a few blocks to my hostel and checked in. Surprisingly, I ran into a few of my friends from UQ there! It was really random, but it ended up being nice to chat with them that night before heading off to bed.

The next morning, I got up early to go see Manly, a part of Sydney just across the harbour. It was a fair bit away, so from my hostel, the easiest way to get there was a quick train ride followed by a ferry. When I stepped off the train, this was the view I had. I think this may be one of the best photos I’ve ever taken.

The ferry ride was a tourist destination in itself! Totally gorgeous:

Manly itself was equally beautiful. The sun was shining, the sky was cloudless, and the weather was just perfect! I spent some time walking around, first on the mall, then the beach, and then along the bay, taking a few back streets and stopping at a local flea market along the way. Most of it doesn’t warrant special mention, but there’s one thing I do feel obligated to bring up, more or less as a public service announcement.  I’ve noticed that Australian beaches seem to have a relatively high (at least from an American perspective) occurrence of men in “budgie smugglers” as they are affectionately known. Americans might know them as “Speedos”. I’m not going to take a stance on the smugglers one way or the other, but just be aware that they are out there. So don’t be surprised when you visit an Aussie beach. Consider yourself warned. For obvious reasons, I don’t have a picture to post, but here are a few other pictures from the morning.

I ran across this mirror and decided it was a good chance for a picture of me. Thats my trusty Lonely Planet guide tucked under my arm.

After catching the ferry back, I arranged a tour and climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Unfortunately, I can’t use the photos of me on the bridge (copyright restrictions, I’m not sure if this counts as commercial use?) but here is a picture of the bridge so you get an idea of what I’m talking about.

(Apparently, that's not actually smog: they are doing controlled burns inland to avoid bushfires)

The tour took us up the left half of the upper arch, across at the very top (by the flags, which you can just barely make out at the very top) and then back down the left side. Don’t worry, we were strapped in the whole time, and the views were unbelievable. It certainly wasn’t an adrenaline rush like skydiving, but if you’re looking for the best views in town, you should give it a go. The climb took the better part of four hours, so by the time I got off, I had just enough time to explore the Sydney Opera House in the setting sun before heading into the city for dinner in Chinatown.

The next morning, I headed over to Bondi beach, which is one of the better-known beaches in Sydney. Again, I couldn’t have asked for better weather. There was actually a triathlon finishing up while I was on the beach, so it was cool to see all the people racing out of the water.

After taking the bus back to the centre of Sydney, I checked out the Maritime Museum, which was fascinating. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to make it out to Cockatoo Island, like I was hoping I would, so I did a little more exploring around the city centre before catching the train back to the airport. Part of my wanders took me to the ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) war memorial. On the inside of the domed roof are 120,000 little stars—one for each soldier from New South Wales who served in World War One. Seeing all those little stars made me realise just how many people that really is. It’s amazing how something so simple can be so powerful.

After leaving the memorial, I had time for one last look around before it was time to go. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. My only regret was that I couldn’t stay longer: Sydney is also home to the Blue Mountains, which are so named because of the eucalyptus oil that floats in the air. They are supposed to be really pretty, and I’m a little sad that I didn’t get a chance to go. Oh well, I’ll just have to go back sometime! Thanks again for reading!

-Isaac Freeman

Hey guys. Apologies in advance for this entry – it’s not going to be super exciting (but next week’s will be!). I’ve been working flat out on a few big essays for the past few weeks, and they all seem to be coming due now, so I’ve been spending a lot more time in the Biological Sciences Library (club BSL, as I call it) than I’d like. Unfortunately, that also means that I haven’t been out exploring the city as much as I’d like, but hey, I’m a student first, traveller second, right?
I did make it out rock climbing with Toby on Saturday though! I didn’t have my camera with me, but it was an absolutely gorgeous day and it really felt fantastic to be outside exercising, instead of sitting at a desk in the library. We tried climbing at a different section of the cliffs this time. One of climbs leaned out a little bit, so you were just, ever-so-slightly inverted as you were climbing up. Unfortunately, by the time we got to that wall, my forearms felt like wet noodles – totally pumped out. I got halfway up the face to the really hard bit, posted up on my feet and made a big reach for the next solid hold and nailed it! It was the perfect hold. But, as soon as I grabbed on, I realised just how tired my arms were – I didn’t even have the strength to keep my fingers closed and I just slipped off the face, which sent me out on a nice little swing in my harness. Determined, I got back to the same spot, but my arms just still couldn’t do it. I finally gave up and Toby lowered me down. I could barely even open my water bottle. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but even as I’m writing this, my forearms are still a little sore. But it’s a good hurt I guess.
In other news, I got my exam schedule, and I’m super stoked, because it’s looking like I’ll have about a week to travel! If the weather will hold out, I would love to go hiking in Tasmania. Apparently, they get heaps of snow down there though, and I didn’t exactly think to bring all my cold weather gear. But who knows, I’ll call the ranger soon and see what he says. Maybe I’ll luck out…
Well, I should probably dig back into my books, but I feel like I aught to give you guys a little sneak preview. I’m headed down to Sydney this weekend, so you can expect some awesome photos next week. I’ll see you then!

Cheers,
-Isaac Freeman

Howdy! I’m finally back in action after mid-semester break. This means that I’ve got nearly three weeks of adventures to update you on. I’ve done it in three separate blog entries though, so if you’ve got the time, check those out too!

Break was absolutely fantastic! The weather was spot on, the scenery was beautiful, but I’m ready to get back into the swing of things and pound out the rest of the semester. I actually just found out my exam schedule too, and it looks like I might be able to squeeze in one more trip. I hope so! I’m still deciding between Tasmania, Darwin, Broome, or Perth. Anybody have any thoughts?
The majority of my week back has been pretty tame, if a little rushed. I got back from Alice Springs about midnight for a 9am class the next day, so that was a little rough, but other than that, the week was mostly uneventful. Friday, however, got a little more exciting when my BIOL2001 class and I took a fieldtrip to Lamington National Park.
As a side note, Lamington National Park is named after Lord Lamington, a one-time governor of Queensland. He is also the namesake of the lamington cake. Ironically, he apparently wasn’t too fond of them though, apparently referring to them as “those bloody poofy woolly biscuits” (I found that fact here, I make no promises as to it’s authenticity). Also of note is that Lord Lamington, upon visiting the land that became Lamington National Park in 1899, disgraced himself by shooting a koala that was sleeping in a tree. Supposedly, its “dying cries were terrible…They haunted me for years”. On my visit, I didn’t shoot a Koala, but I did see a car with this bumper sticker.

Conspiracy? Probably not, but one never knows. Actually, it seems that Koalas aren’t doing so hot anyway, but that’s another story.
The park itself was absolutely gorgeous. The land is an ancient, eroded volcano, which means that very different soil types exist within a relatively compact area. This translates to very diverse forest types, including rainforest and eucalypt forest, which was very cool to see.

Most of the photos are pretty self-explanatory, but I do think I should mention a few. That down suit was in the foyer of the lodge nearby and belonged to a Michael Groom, who wore it on a successful Mt. Everest climb in 1993. The crazy part is that on a later Everest expedition, Mr. Groom rescued Beck Weathers, whose tragic story of being left for dead – twice - by other climbers is well known. The really random part of the whole thing is that Beck Weathers lives in Dallas, TX, where I also live (when I’m not at Tufts University or traipsing around Australia) and grew up. Small World!
That awkward looking fruit I’m holding is called a “finger lime”. It’s also known as the caviar of the rainforest because the inside is full of little tiny beads full of juice. They are supposed to taste like limes, but I’m not convinced. One of the TA’s from the class gave it to me, and it may have been one of the sourest things I have ever eaten.
The more time I spend in Australia though, the more I discover that everything here will kill you. If the snakes don’t get you, the crocodiles will. If you stay away from the water, you still have to watch out for the spiders. But even if you avoid all the critters, you’re still not safe! They have stinging nettles here the size of trees! Don’t get me wrong, it’s very possible to enjoy Australia safely, but sometimes it’s helpful to know what you’re up against.

(Even the branches will get you!)

Saturday, after sleeping in, I decided to visit the Brisbane Truck Show, which is billed as the largest commercial truck show in the Southern Hemisphere. I’m still a little boy at heart, so I had a blast looking at all the shiny things and flashing lights. I was like a kid in a candy store. I got a cool Cummins Diesel hat and HEAPS of free posters. I think the photos speak for themselves, but I do want to mention a few things. Firstly, I still can’t figure out why commercial trucks still come from the factory with halogen headlights. There is so much better lighting technology now. It seems like a no-brainer for professional drivers, but I guess not. And speaking of hi-performance lights, HID lights are apparently on their way out these days. It looks like LED is the new HID. Very cool. Lastly, that Mercedes truck is HUGE! I was about looking up at the seat-cushion, and I’m 6’2”!

(Western Star: R. M. Williams Edition)

(So many bypasses!)

(You can't tell in the photo, but the emblem is lit up for night driving)

(Beautiful Kenworth T909)

Ok, that’s all I’ve got for this week, but definitely check out the two entries below this one if you haven’t seen ‘em yet. That’s where the really interesting stuff is.

Thanks again for reading!

-Isaac Freeman

I know I’ve done a lot of posting in a short amount of time, so I think I’m going to try to keep this one relatively short and let the photos speak for themselves.  But I’ll still definitely flesh out some of the more interesting details of the trip.

In case anybody is interesting in making this trip themselves, here’s a overview:

Night 1: Hugh River camping Area off of Namatjira Drive (no facilities)

Night 2: Redbank Gorge (toilet)

Night 3: Kings Canyon Resort (full facilites)

Night 4: Yulara (Full Facilities)

Night 5: Rainbow Valley (toilet)

The first day started really early, especially after getting back from Fraser at 8pm the night before.  I met up with my father, whom I hadn’t seen since I left all those months ago.  After a few hugs, we caught a train to the airport and jumped on our plane.  Within a few hours, we were in Alice Springs, which, interestingly, is half an hour off of Brisbane time. I didn’t realise that there were half-hour time zones…  After picking up out camper and getting the rundown on how to use it, we got our groceries and were off into the Aussie bush.

Because we had gotten a late start, we weren’t very far out of town when the sun started to set.  By all accounts, it’s really not a good idea to drive at night in the Outback, because nobody wants to hit a kangaroo – or worse – a camel!  So we started to look for places to camp.  We finally found a turnoff that indicated that camping was permitted.  There were no facilities whatsoever, but there was a flat spot just off the trail, which was all that we needed.  Neither of us felt like cooking in the dark, so we decided to skip a hot meal and have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner instead.

In a way, camping completely without facilities the first night was a good idea because we got an idea of what we had forgotten to get.  Number one on the list was bug spray!  So, we made a quick stop back in Alice Springs before heading out into the bush in earnest.  We stopped at few of the local attractions along the way, but didn’t see anything too noteworthy, however, the burned out car on its roof was a rather stark reminder of just how unforgiving this landscape can be.

We spent the night at Redbank Gorge.  This was more of an official campground, but it wasn’t very busy though, which was nice, and the stars were absolutely incredible.  The campsite had a toilet and a free gas grill, which was out of gas.  Fortunately though, our little home away from home was more than equipped with its own gas grill.  We had steaks and mashed potatoes for dinner.  Mmmmm.

(Andrew Freeman Photo)

The next day, we got an early start and took off, with the aim of making it to Kings Canyon Resort by nightfall.  Other than that, the day was largely unplanned.  We stopped at Gosse Bluff, which was beautiful, and then took a shortcut down to the Mareenie Loop – a 155 kilometre of rough, corrugated red road.  Well, it was supposed to be a shortcut anyway.  After a few hours of driving, we realised that our map wasn’t detailed enough for the little back roads and had to turn around to avoid getting hopelessly lost and/or stuck in the sand.  So, in the end, our ‘shortcut’ added about an extra hundred kilometres onto the day.  But it was heaps of fun, and we saw wild camels and wild brumbies (horses) so it was definitely worth it.  The rest of the drive in was absolutely gorgeous.

(Termites!)

Two things did catch my eye on the drive though.  First of all, there are tons of these little watermelon looking things.  They were all over the roads!  Apparently, they are called ‘bush melons’, and depending on who you ask, they  are either poisonous, or just taste really bad.  I decided to play it safe and not eat one.  I did however, give them some quizzical looks.

(Andrew Freeman's Photo)

The other thing that I found strange were these giant signs on the sides of the road indicating that you were entering an area where alcohol and certain materials were prohibited.  I don’t know enough about the politics out here to really say much about this, but for better or worse, they seem to be a part of the out landscape out here, so I thought it warranted a photo.

(Andrew Freeman's Photo)

After spending the night at King’s Canyon Resort, we got up and did the rim walk at the canyon.  The photos speak for themselves.

(Watch people fall off cliffs???)

(Stairway to...)

From there, it was pretty much all blacktop down to Ayres Rock, which is now referred to by it’s Aboriginal name, Uluru.  On the road into Uluru, rolling hills give way to total flatness.  Then out of nowhere, this HUGE monolith appears on the horizon.  But, the joke was on me (and every other tourist) because that’s Mt. Conner.  Uluru is the next giant monolith that appears on the horizon 100 kilometres further down the road.   At any rate, my father and I got to the REAL Uluru just in time to do some hiking and watch the sun set.  Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so the photos were not as spectacular as they could have been.  The official sunset viewing area provided an interesting photographical conundrum too.  I didn’t I didn’t want to dig out the tripod, but my normal 18-135mm DX Nikon lens wasn’t fast enough, so all the photos looked blurry.  So I switched to my father’s much faster 50mm lens.  The ironic part was that, with this lens, Uluru was TOO BIG to fit in one photo.  At this point, I gave up and decided to let my father stitch the two photos together in Photoshop (which I can’t use for the life of me (this is a good time to mention that almost all of the photos I post here aren’t photoshopped – they appear just as they were taken).

It was getting dark by now, so we made a beeline for the nearest campground, which is just outside the park.  I took a much-appreciated shower and then crawled up into the top bunk of our camper for the night.

The next day, as we were packing up, I noticed that we had had an unwelcomed visitor overnight.  Apparently, a mouse snuck in and took a few nibbles out of my cell phone case and our chocolate bar.  NOT OK.  We cut our losses and popped back into the national park to check out Kata Tjuta (The Olgas).

After getting our visual fill, we took Luritja Road to Ernest Giles Road, a 99 kilometre stretch of rough road.  Even the sign recommends taking an alternate route.

It ended up not being that bad, and we made good time to our final night out at Rainbow Valley.  We spent the evening looking up at a gorgeous rock outcropping.  Darkness brought an unwelcome surprise though: MORE MICE!  Thousands of them!  They were everywhere!  They were literally running up my legs and nibbling my shoes!  I couldn’t believe it, it was insane!  I have never seen mice like that.  It was my last night out in the bush though, so I decided to take the risk and sleep on a raised platform outside under the stars. Totally worth it; they were absolutely spectacular!

On our last day, we took the Owen Springs trail back to Alice Springs.  It was a perfect last day.  Just rough enough to be fun without the fear of getting stuck the whole time.  We came across this cool caterpillar train.  It was just a whole bunch of caterpillars just cruising together in a line.  It was fascinating.  I stuck a piece of bark between two of them to see what they would do.  To my amazement, the ones in front of the obstacle stopped until the ones behind it had successfully navigated it and caught up!  Very cool.

Then an area that had just been burned (some of the bigger logs were still on fire).

And then gorgeous, lush creek beds.  It was absolutely fantastic.

We spent our final night in Alice Springs at a camper park cleaning up and getting all of our gear in order before flying out the next morning.  We met this incredibly nice retired Australian couple who were on a coast to coast driving trip.  I got their information, so with any luck, I’ll have a cool Aussie pen-pal one of these days, once they get back to civilisation.  What a fantastic trip!  If you go to Austraia, you’ve got to check out the Red Centre!

Well, so much for keeping it short.  But I hope you enjoyed the photos, and thanks for reading!

-Isaac Freeman

Wow! This week has been absolutely incredible. As background, I am in a class called Australia’s Terrestrial Environment (BIOL2001). Technically, I believe it is a requirement for all biology majors, but more than anything, it’s a must-do for students studying abroad (along with its companion, Australia’s Marine Environment). Its popularity among study abroad students is in no small part because it includes guided trips to Brisbane Forest Park, Lamington National Park, the Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin’s old Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park), and most notably, a four day bush-camping expedition to Fraser island, the world’s largest sand island. Seriously, this island is hundreds of kilometres long, forested with rainforest and beautiful sclerophyll (eucalypt) forests, and yet it is made of nothing but sand.  Seriously, there is not a single rock on this island. It is absolutely incredible to imagine how it all happened, and the island’s beauty is hard to put in words—but I’ll do my best.

Because so much happened over the trip, I can’t really blog about it all. My plan is to try to skip the boring stuff and focus in the interesting bits. At any rate, some students slept in cabins, while others, including myself, slept in tents. We ‘campers’ had the privilege (or curse, depending on how you look at it) in making the three-hour drive in the back of the 4×4’s. I guess I should mention, in case I haven’t before that there are basically no ‘roads’ on Fraser Island. The beach is the main highway and a high clearance four-wheel drive is an absolute necessity. And people STILL get bogged down in the sand, but we’ll get to that later. At any rate, we campers compressed ourselves into the backseats of the utes and tried to find any semblance of comfort for the duration of the drive. As uncomfortable as I was though, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. FINALLY, after three months of Australia, I was getting into the bush, and a bumpy, cramped ride in the backseat of a ute was all just part of the experience. Folded up in the back, my knees were basically hitting my chin, but even they still couldn’t wipe the grin off my face.
After a few hours of driving on the mainland, the pavement gave way to a beach. Everybody took a restroom break as the instructors aired down all the tires. As you probably guessed, I was down on my hands and knees with the rest of the staff trying to help out. Apparently, a lot of the 4×4’s still use tube tires here! I had no idea! They use a unique two-piece rim design that makes changing tires out in the bush easier. It’s a double edged sword though. Tube tires are supposed to be easier to change, but they are also apparently more prone to breaking in the first place. Pick your poison I guess. Another thing I didn’t know: skinny tires are better in the sand that big ol’ fat ones. They don’t look quite as cool as the big mud tires from back home, but when it comes to sand islands, functionality always wins out.
After airing down, we got back into the utes. I was mulling over exactly how these funky two-piece rims worked, but I totally lost track of my thoughts when I saw the vehicle ferries that were going to take us over to Fraser island. SO COOL!

After landing on Fraser in our own mini-beach assault, we were soon cruising down the highway (again, I use that term rather loosely) to Dilli Village, where we were staying. As an aside, driving on the beach is a unique sort of thing. The ocean does a fantastic job of keeping the sand smooth, relatively dust-free, and compact, but only when it wants to: half the day, most of the beach is under water, which makes the driving even that much more hairy. After a while, we reached out ‘exit’ and it was time to leave the safety of the beach for the drier sand of the interior. The most tedious part is actually the area between the beach and the start of the vegetation. The sand doesn’t have the ocean to compact and compress it, and it also doesn’t have any vegetation to bind it together. In order to get through, you have to keep up your momentum. This means the driver essentially has to floor it in incredibly soft sand. Nobody got stuck, but the sand flying everywhere made it pretty fun to watch.

The next day, we visited Lake Wabby. The lake was a few kilometres’ walk from the car park through the forest, which kept most of the crowds away. The most striking part of the whole walk was the last few hundred metres to the lake. Because the entire island is made of sand, if the vegetation dies, you end up with a massive white sand blow. It was pretty impressive to see: the forest suddenly giving way to huge dunes of bleached sand.

And at the bottom of one of these dunes was a gorgeous lake. Exclusively rain-fed, it was incredibly refreshing. The little fish nibbling at my feet really added to the ambiance as well. I’m still not quite sure how these fish ended up in the middle of a desert lake though…
Unfortunately, the next morning came way too early. I had a 6:00 am tracking and trapping presentation. We found a few bird and snake tracks, but the star of the show was definitely the black rat, Rattus rattus, if that gives you an idea of how exciting the morning was.

(Don't worry, we let him go about 5 seconds after this photo was taken)

The next day, we visited Lake Mackenzie, which is probably is probably Fraser’s most well known, and for good reason. It’s stunningly beautiful, with white sand and incredibly clear water. In fact, they recommend that visitors not even wear sun-block, lest they pollute the water – it’s THAT pure. Although the easy access (well, easy for a 4×4 track) made it rather busy, it was a big beach, so no one part was too choked with tourists.
To be honest, I was a little bummed out as we were heading back to camp. In four days at Frasier, driving all over the show, no one had gotten bogged down in the sand. Not one vehicle. Not once. I was deep in thought about all this when suddenly the engine started revving, we stopped moving, and our Australian driver let out a few choice words. Finally, we were stuck! After a quick photo op,

the driver deployed some traction aids, and we reversed out of our bog. After backing up to get to some better sand, we gunned it, only to get stuck again. This time, up to the axles. We were stuck pretty good, and because the tires were basically street tires, we couldn’t even get any purchase on the traction aids we had used earlier. Finally, after half an hour of digging and spinning our wheels (pun very much intended) someone decided that we should have another ute yank us out. This would have been a great idea if we had had a vehicle in front of us (no room to drive one around), a snatch strap, and a shackle. We had one of the three – the shackle. One gentleman came out to help. I was very impressed by his selflessness until it came out that it wasn’t so much that he was friendly, but more that we were blocking his way back to camp. Finally, after what seemed like ages of digging someone from our party managed to borrow a snatch strap and take a different route around the island and get in front of us. I grabbed the shackle and hooked up the strap to the stuck vehicle, while the others tried to hook up the other end of the strap to the extracting vehicle. It was at this point that we discovered an interesting thing. We only had one shackle, so the tow loops on the other rig weren’t of much use. Oh well, the good news was that we had a receiver hitch, so we could pull off the ball and use the hitch pin to hold the strap. That was when we discovered interesting thing number two: that the salt had basically corroded the ball in place. Hmm, no worries, the strap had eyes sewn into it, so we could just loop the strap through itself around the whole bumper. When I went to unscrew the shackle so we could loop the strap: I discovered interesting thing number three: it was jammed. The rough galvanizing and sand in the threads was just enough to make it stick. After poking around the ute looking for inspiration, I finally found it in the form of a metal rod. It provided just enough leverage to get the shackle off, and within fifteen minutes, we had been yanked out and were cruising back into camp, just in time to catch dinner.
Because it was our last night on the island, I spent a few hours, just lying in the sand by myself, listening to the surf, staring at the stars, and just thinking. Not about anything in particular—just life. It was incredibly relaxing and refreshing. Note to self: I need to do that more often.
The next day, the tide was in when we were leaving, so we had to take the inland route to the ferry terminal, which was incredibly bumpy. In fact, my driver was in the middle of complaining about the road condition when suddenly out caravan came to rather abrupt halt.

After a good laugh and a lot of photos, we unloaded all the gear out of the trailer and somehow managed to stuff it into the different vehicles, since the trailer certainly wasn’t going anywhere. Somehow, we made it to the ferry on time, but while we were loading ourselves on, I heard something about dingoes come over the barge’s loudspeaker. I couldn’t exactly tell what was being said over the surf, but I walked to the other side of the barge just in time to see two dingoes being chased back into the forest and a distraught mother carrying her little girl in her arms. From where I was on the barge, I saw the mom put the little girl down on a beach towel, and it seemed like a really close call until the little girl didn’t get up, and more people began to crowd around her. At that point, I realised that she had been bitten. Within a few minutes, she was rushed onto the ferry, and by the time we were back on the mainland, the paramedics were there to attend to the girl, who had been bitten several times on her legs and bottom. Unfortunately, the park ranger was also there to shoot those two dingoes.
Looking back, it’s a truly sad situation all the way around. The little girl had been playing by herself just a few hundred feet from where parents were fishing. Unfortunately, it was on the other side of a sand dune and right next to the tree line. It was the perfect storm of a moment of inattention and wild animals. It was incredibly lucky that the barge captain was there with his high vantage point. If they had been 100 yards down the beach, I am almost sure that that little girl would not have survived because no one would have noticed until it was too late. It is sad that that little girl will likely grow up traumatised by this experience and will probably be afraid of dogs for the rest of her life. I also feel bad for those dingoes. People forget that they are wild animals and WE are the visitors. It is sad that they will likely be killed for doing nothing more than behaving naturally and looking for an easy meal.
All in all, it was a great trip. This entry seems to have gotten a little heavy though, so let’s see if I can’t lighten the mood a little it before I call it quits: It’s official. I’ve given up on Aussie bacon. Back home, bacon is supposed to be crispy (my great, great grandmother comes to mind – she used to order her bacon “cremated” or “so crisp that [she] could powder it with a fork”). At any rate, the bacon here is more like little mini ham-steaks, and certainly isn’t crispy. It’s been four months, and I’m still not used to it. Speaking of which, this whole spaghetti for brekkie thing is strange too, but that’s a story for another day. Oh well, if that’s the extent of my culture shock, I guess I should consider myself lucky!

Thanks again for reading!

-Isaac Freeman

Here are a few other interesting photos from the trip.  Enjoy!

(At a truck stop on the way to Fraser)

(A Goana)

(A Dingo)

(Climbing a Vine)

(A type of Epiphyte - it just sort of grows on the side of the tree)

Ok, votes are in! Aussie English it is. But before I get started, I have a confession to make. I didn’t make it to the beach this weekend. It was raining, and I didn’t feel like a two hour train ride each way just to surf in the rain. But fear not, I WILL surf before I leave this country. Come Hell or high water. Unless the water actually is too high of course… But regardless, it ended up being a pretty good week. On the whole, it was pretty relaxing, but it was certainly punctuated by periods of excitement.
I guess I should start at the beginning of the week. My Monday was pretty busy with work at the office, and Tuesday was remarkably productive as well. I went to class, got a mouthpiece and headgear for rugby (first game this Wednesday!), set up a local bank account, booked my flight home, and even managed to return all of my library books! Felt good to get so many little errands that had been nagging taken care of all in one fell swoop. Wednesday was devoted to studying for my Industrial Economics exam, which I had on Thursday. Work on Friday was a welcome change of pace, and a wonderful opportunity to spend some time working with my new friends. Interestingly enough, one of the employees is actually about to embark on a vacation to the USA. He’s hitting most of the major touristy spots, but I couldn’t seem to convince him that Texas (my home state) is worth visiting. I told him maybe next time. Anyway, since last week was his last Friday in Brisbane for a while, several of us met up for Indian food at his flat after work. It was great! I finally managed to escape my tourist identity completely – I was just another friend from the office. So cool! His flat was beautiful and his roommates were heaps of fun as well! A couple of his other friends also came over, one of which works as a process engineer at a coal mine about 8 hours away. I’m working on lining up a mine tour for my blog, but we’ll see what happens. At any rate, after dinner, everyone was getting ready to go out, but unfortunately, I had a backpack full of stuff from work. I didn’t really have a safe place to put it, and I didn’t want to leave it at coat check, so I decided not to go. So I spent about an hour just exploring and people watching in the city before catching a series of busses home. (I still don’t know how the bus routes work here, but I’ve discovered that most bus drivers are more than happy to point you in the right direction).
Saturday was glorious. After limited sleep all week, it felt fantastic to sleep in! I woke up about nine and just kind of lazed around for a few hours, doing a little bit of work here and there. Around mid afternoon, I headed out to Kangaroo Point for some more rock climbing with Toby. On the way there I saw this beauty.   Why can’t they have more cars like these in the states?

Everything went fine, but by the last climb, it was getting pretty dark. I don’t think it made the climbing any more dangerous, but it certainly made it scarier! However, the views of the city from across the river were absolutely spectacular. On the rappel back down, I locked off halfway down and spent a few minutes just staring out across the river—it was just that pretty. Both safely on the ground, Toby rode his bike home and I made my way back to the bus stop; only to discover that I had missed the last bus back to the university on that line. Instead of walking back to campus, I caught the next bus in the other direction, back into the city centre (I knew that the bus from the city to campus runs all night). It was nearly 8pm by this point, and I was getting pretty hungry, so I decided to check out the local 24-hour pancake haunt – Pancake Manor.

Pancake Manor is housed in some old church from the 1920’s and the atmosphere is great. For whatever reason, there was a wait, so I was ushered downstairs to the “Good Knight Bar”. I sampled a local brew and passed the time messing with my camera and taking impromptu photos of the other patrons.

(The view from upstairs)

Before I knew it, it was time to be seated, and I was greeted with a gorgeous stack of pancakes, complete with a scoop of ice cream on top.

Sated, I caught the bus back to Emmanuel, where I have been enjoying the remainder of my weekend, eating wild macadamia nuts, doing homework, and preparing for next week. Get excited: Fraser island and Uluru!  I’ll be riding in one of these:

Thanks again for reading!

-Isaac Freeman