Ari's Planet

Somehow I made it to Broome. Whew, it's hot here. Found a couple of guys who are doing the Gibb River Road (GRR). This is a dirt road that goes more or less from Broome to Kununnura (not exactly, see a map). We're planning to leave Saturday and take about 10 days to complete the 660 km track. One of the guys is an Aussie tour guide with 30 years experience and a shiny big 4 WD. The other guy is a Brit with a camper van. This afternoon they took their cars to be serviced. We're hoping to find a couple of more people to go with us and share expenses. There's an outside chance one more guy with a 4WD will join us, and having an extra vehicle will make me feel better. The big thing is the road can get flooded in the "wet", which we're rapidly approaching, making it completely impassable. This is really the tail-end of the season. The road is still open, though there's only one open service station on the way, so we'll be carrying plenty of water, food, and fuel. There are amazing gorges as side-trips, but my understanding is that these are mostly or entirely closed now due to the season.

Guess what? There are holidays in the middle of December! Who knew! That's right, Australia takes off and leaves from around mid-December to end of January. The airlines figured this out before me and know they can charge stupid amounts for normally cheap airfares. For instance, Darwin to Singpapore on Jetstar is often $50 to $100, but during this season it ranges from $300 and up. Not only that, but I'd much rather get to Bangkok, since there are cheaper flights from there to Kolkata, India, which is where I think I'll start my tour there, but there are no flights on the cheap airlines from Darwin to Bangkok. Vayama and a few other services come up with amazing routes taking me to Cairns, to Sydney, and then back up to Singapore, which is absurd. Flights from Cairns aren't cheap either. Options are to leave Australia ASAP, which I don't want to do, or extend my visa for $100. But first, I need to escape Exmouth. There's a bus that comes through, with a transfer, at a stupid hour in the middle of the night and involves a scary number of hours to get to Broome, from which I still need to move on to the next destination. I can get a ride to Port Hedland, but then I'd be stuck there for 4 days waiting for the bus. There is nothing to do in Port Hedland. Hmm.

A batch of photos from my trip up the coast from Perth to Exmouth.

Cape Range NP	Carnarvon area	Coral Bay
Exmouth	Francois Peron NP	Geraldton
Kalbarri and Kalbarri NP	Lake Thetis (stromatolites)	Pinnacles Desert
Shark Bay World Heritage Area	Stockyard Gully NP	West Australia (various)

After Coral Bay we drove up to Exmouth. The starter motor burnt out attempting to start up at the gas station, leading to an impromptu extension of our stay in the Exmouth area. I went for a dive, oggled (literally) fucking Green turtles (the correct and more polite term is "mating", but walking up to your friends and saying "I saw fucking green turtles" is much more satisfying), and we spent a few days push-starting the car around Cape Range NP and being blown over by the winds. Tomorrow our plan is to head out to Karijini NP for a few days and then back down to Exmouth where I will do some more diving. In the meantime, my attempt to burn DVDs turned into a virus erradication effort on one of the dive shop's computers.

Traveling in an old Nisan 4WD and having a ball. Snorkelled the last couple of days--it was stunning. Tomorrow is time for more snorkeling. The thermometer in the car says it's 40C and it feels it. Dry, flat, red sand. It looks like Australia, complete to the Emu crossing the road.

After two weeks of checking notice boards I caught up with a nice British couple heading up from Perth to Broome in their newly-painted matte-black 4WD. Along with a German guy, we'll head out tomorrow after my 3rd JE shot and some food shopping for a ~2-3 week sweep up the west coast to Broome. Lots of fun it will be, so many things to see.

Latest photos from Australia are up:

Collie area	Fremantle	Perth
Rottnest Island	Sydney

cape to cape Transport from Busselton, Dunsborough, Margaret River and Augusta. The north end is closest to Dunsborough, the south end is closest to Augusta. Transwa goes to Busselton, Margaret River, Augusta, but Greyhound only goes to Augusta. Leaves
Perth Sun-Thu 1230 arrives Busselton 1628, Margaret River 1745, Augusta 1815. Sun to Fri there's a bus also at 0830. Return, there are buses leaving 0830 and 1505 from Augusta.

Transport

transwa routes map. A 10% discount for backpackers VIP/YHA cardholders only by phone 1300 66 22 05.
greyhound routes
easyrider seems like the best option.

Backpacker sites

http://www.backpackerboard.com/

On my list

Nilgaloo reef diving (whale sharks, etc.)
Kakadu NP (NT)

Sydney was not my place. A big city. Seemed nice enough. The opera house was nice and iconic. The art gallery had free admission and I admired all the very British romantic paintings from the 19th century. Students in school uniforms--white with tie for a group of young teenagers, yellow shirts for younger kids--were being tought about various works. There was an immense drawing of Russians running away from Napoleon's forces and another painting of British forces repelling 4000 Zulu warriors (I think this got made into a Hollywood movie).

My last day in New Zealand was a great success. That day I trundeled into town and picked up a few last-minute gifts. On the way, a couple of fellow hostel inmates sprung for several of my books. Two Germans, in rapid succession, both commented "hey, I've seen that film" on seeing a copy of "The Art of War". Yes, I know that's sad but they're nice guys. Getting rid of the books bought me some cash for gifts, as well as lightening my load an avoiding a repeat of the Great Plastic Bag Burst of 2002. Later I met up with a few more hostel mates and we went fishing outside Auckland. Actually, they went fishing and I took pictures. My rule: teach a man to take pictures and he'll get a photo, teach a man to fish and he may or may not eat that night. I ate some Chinese concoction and we all swilled sandy Irish Cream. The big frenchman made off with a nice snapper, and I got great sunset shots of the Auckland skyline, or rather of the light that was not blocked by man's buildings. The next morning was early and involved a failure to eat my last three tomatos. I did get to the airport properly on time, was given several conflicting opinions about taking matches on a plane, and enjoyed not having to take off my boots to go through security. The flight was uneventful, accompanied by the dreadful Get Smart. I seem to have dozed off at some point, which is the only way I can explain the following events. After landing at a typical airport, I made my way into what looked like a typical city, found a typical hostel, checked in, and went for what I thought would be a typical walk. Now, my flight, at least as I recalled booking it, was from Auckland to Sydney, which if you look up a map is in Australia. Now, imagine my shock when it turned out I was in Brazil! Just a short walk out, and there were all these Brazillian flags, Brazillian girls, Brazillian food, Brazillian music. Now, Brazil is a right nice place, but I just wasn't expecting it on this particular day. I think they may have put up a replica of the Sydney Opera House (probably another Disney production), but other than that, I just can't figure it out. Maybe when I fell asleep a kea escaped from the cargo hold, ate through the cabin floor, and hijacked the plane. That, at any rate, seems like the most plausible explanation.

I was booking a flight with Virgin Blue, one of the discount domestic Australian airlines, to fly from Sydney to Perth. The booking page said I would be generating about 270 kg of CO2* and that I could offset this amount for a bit under AUD$4. The money would go to an Australian government approved abatement program. The link about the program brought me to Virgin Blue's Fly Carbon Neutral page. Here, it is stated that the money will go to either LMS Generation or to a Waste Composting facility operated by the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council. LMS Generation uses gases from waste to generate power. This, in itself, does not reduce carbon emissions.

I've uploaded pictures from Singapore and Australia, including from the Overland Track.

Browsing the visitor's center at Lake St. Clair were postcards by local photographers Peter Dombrovskis and Rob Blakers. They both have done fine work, which is also available in shops in Hobart, online, etc. Along Elizabeth street in Hobart, a bit north of the pedestrian mall, there's a neat little map shop with maps from all over the world, travel books, and some great pictures in the back room.

One of the "must do" items on my RTW has been to hike the Overland Track (OT) in Tasmania. The OT covers about 80 km of trail going north to south in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park, part of the Tasmanian Wilderness UNESCO World Heritage site. The hike is said to be one of the best hikes in the world.

My plans, such as they are: maybe do the Overland Track and/or Tasman Coastal Trail or Freycinet Peninsula. Still trying to figure out transport options to trailheads. Tassielinks offers a 15-day pass with 10 days of unlimited bus travel for AUD$225, which may be my best deal. May be offline for a bit while I do the hikes and stay out in the wilds. Great Walks of Tasmania has all the info on these hikes.

*** Hobart
Adelphi Court 17 Stoke Street New Town TAS 7000 Phone: (03) 6228 4829 Reception Hours: 7.30am to 10.30am and 4pm to 9pm (16 December - 15 March) 8am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm (16 March - 15 December)
Montgomery's Private Hotel and YHA Backpackers 9 Argyle Street, Hobart 7000 Reception Hours: 7 am to 10 p Phone: (03) 6231 2660 Email Address: montys@yhatas.org.au
Central City Backpackers 138 Collins Street Hobart TAS 7000 reception is open from 8am till 10pm during summer, and 8 am till 9pm during winter. Phone 1800 811 507

Did you know compasses are made for the northern and southern hemispheres, in fact for 5 different zones?

Tasmania is just expensive. So you want to go on a great hike?

BANKING
http://www.bugaustralia.com/essentials/money.html
The four main banks:
ANZ www.anz.com
Commonwealth Bank www.commbank.com.au
National Australia Bank (NAB) website www.nab.com.au
Westpac website www.westpac.com.au
GST 10% refund: >= $300 per item purchased no more than 30 days before leaving AU brought as carry-on luggage with tax invoice.
http://www.australia-migration.com/page/Opening_a_Bank_Account_in_Austra...

Hobart is the main city in Tasmania, which is a big island off the southern coast of the Australian mainland. Enough with the geography lesson. What I'm really doing is procrastinating. I'm supposed to be deciding which hike(s) to go on and what food to take with me, or at least cooking dinner for tonight. Bah. I'd rather sit here and tell you a bit about Hobart.