The only impediment to writing a travel
blog is finding the time. I thought I would have ample opportunity- I mean, 6
months is long. Half a year! Having time off like Dan and I do- to truly
just be- is a monumental privilege.
Though time flies by too quickly (as it does when you’re having fun),
I’m working at immersing myself in every moment a much as I consciously can-
and I’m getting better every day. This blog means a lot to me as it serves as a
personal record of my travel story and, most importantly, it makes me feel
connected to my friends and family. I
miss you guys! So let’s get you up to date.
East Coast Australia
The next part of our adventure was a road
trip down the East Coast. Dan, Jess, Uriel and I would travel over the next 8
days in a hired 4-sleeper Britz camper van from Brisbane to Sydney with no clear
plan of how and where things would happen- the best way to travel. We left the
house in our new home on wheels with a vague plan to stop in Byron Bay.
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| Parked in Mullumbimby |
After driving through the Gold Coast and a
pretty view stop in Coolangatta, the towering buildings of Surfer’s Paradise
safely in the distance, we arrived in Byron Bay. Or, more specifically, we
arrived in excruciatingly slow traffic 3 km out of Byron Bay. It is a popular
spot and we’d started our trip just in time for school holidays in New South
Wales. Fantastic. We parked our little house in a cul-de-sac and headed on
foot. It was well worth the extra walk-
Hermanus meets Kalk Bay – filled with souvenir shops, good ice cream, and hipsters. A fun place to explore, we spent 3 days in the area including an
afternoon at the beach, a morning walk through the national forest, dinner and
many drinks.
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| Cath, Merrick and Dan |
We slept in a Mullumbimby, a cute little
town out of Byron Bay, a driveway kindly provided by Cath’s brother Merrick. Cath is an old friend of Alan and has made our East Coast trip that much better.
Merrick and his partner Punta invited us in for a delicious dinner, great company,
and free use of the showers- a good start to any road trip.
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| Ben and Finn |
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| Surfers ride to Brunswick, one hand on their bike, one hand on their boards |
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| Dan coming out of the water with Kelly Slater |
Mt Warning is a gorgeous lush dormant volcanic
remnant in close proximity to Cape Byron, the easternmost point of mainland
Australia and therefore one of the first places on Earth to receive the sun’s
rays each day. It took us about an hour and a half to climb and ended with a
rock scramble similar to the final summit of Lion’s Head except at an extreme
angle. Mt Warning was named by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770 along with another
mountain range he named Danger Point, as cautionary landmarks of rocks in the
area. At the same time he named Cape Byron, 3 km East of what is now known as
Byron Bay, after John Byron, a British captain who successfully circumnavigated
the globe.
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| Mt Warning View- |
On our walk up the mountain, an Australian
couple suggested a visit to Brooms Head a place where we were sure to see kangaroos
in the truckloads. Thrilled with the idea of wild kangaroos we packed up our
driveway home and headed on. After a few
hours of driving, we arrived in Yuraygir National Park Dan aptly describes it as the “Transkei but
with kangaroos”. Astoundingly beautiful, lush green hills overlook about 1,5 km
of unspoilt, unpopulated beach. We camped, photographed the wallabies and
kangaroos- the first we’d seen in the wild- and visited the lake for evening
sundowners (and a saltyish bath). I spent a large portion of the next day
nursing a cold spread out on a sleeping bag under trees overlooking the beach
writing the previous installment of this blog. Not the worst sick day I’ve ever
had. On departure we stopped at the only tap available and had cold fresh water
showers. Truly tremendous.
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| Boxing Kangaroos |
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| Mom and babe, Yuraygir National Park |
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| Yuraygir National park- view from our campsite |
After driving for ages we passed through
Coffs Harbour and decided to move on, as it looked more like a sprawling city
than an interesting camping stop. We arrived in Nambucca heads which is pretty but not very interesting. We stayed one night at the campsite and headed off to
Crescent Heads the next morning.
Crescent Heads is known as the long-board
capital of the world. A short strip of motels and shops makes up the whole town
central, the rest made up of residential and holiday homes with amazing views.
While I wouldn’t call it charming exactly, it certainly grew on me. We stayed
at a campsite next to the pretty beach. Dan surfed regularly and I rented a long-board
to get in some practice on a slow beach break prior to heading to Indonesia for
‘surf school’. The waves were gentle and I remembered why I love the water so
much.
We returned our motorhome and moved to
backpackers in The Rocks near the Sydney Opera House. There was nothing quite
like the feeling of a good mattress and space after a days of sleeping on a
thin mattress overlying hard wood in what we nick-named the upstairs sleeping
area- ‘the coffin’.
We
joined a free walking tour- a brilliant way to learn about a new city for a
small price- a tip- rather than a fee, walked all over drinking coffee on the
go from the many coffee bistros, visited china town and Hyde Park (named for
its London counterpart), had dinner and ice cream at Darling Harbour, took
pictures of all the sites, visited Dirk’s office for a skyline view right at
the top of the building (I’ve never climbed a ladder out of a boiler room!).
Dan lived in London for 2 years and commented that Sydney’s city closely
resembles Londontown and many of the streets and areas share the same names.
Though a lot younger, many of Sydney’s buildings are modeled on London
architecture and the feel of the place is the same- but sunnier.
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| View of Hyde Park from the top of Dirk's building |
Here’s a little history: Sydney started as
a penal colony for British criminals in 1788 when the first fleet of convicts
and escorts arrived. It was not the first British Penal colony but once the
American revolutionary war was brought to an end, a new penal colony had to be
established- partly to alleviate the population burden in Britain and partly to
deter crime (the alternative being the death penalty for even minor offenses).
Captain James Cook had recently described Botany Bay- where Sydney now sits-
and had claimed the East Coast of Australia for Britain. After travelling for
months, if you had not died, you would find yourselves one of the first
citizens of this new country. A disaster at first-agriculture was not easy to
establish in these new harsh, untested conditions without domesticated animals
or a skilled labour force- and so there was a high mortality rate due to the
shortage of food. Not all criminals who arrived from Britain deserved their
excommunication- you may be sent to Australia for stealing a loaf of bread
(they needed women to populate the new colony after all!). After serving time,
usually 7 years, working for an employer in conditions that may have been
similar to slave labour for some, a convict would be issued with a Certificate
of Freedom. They could return to Britain or become free settlers. Many did,
establishing families in the new colony. The less well-behaved convicts were
sent to Tasmania or Port Arthur for a second punishment and often solitary
confinement. Around the 1850s transportation of convicts was abolished just in
time for the gold rush, which brought in a flood of new arrivals of many
nationalities to populate the new country.
After a lone morning run across the Harbour
Bridge and back- spectacular – we left to stay at Cath’s house in Bondi Beach.
Cath was a spectacular host – feeding us dinner and housing us and driving us
around- to the airport for Jess and Uriel, to the beaches in the area for Dan
and I. One morning, while walking in Bondi after a little food shop and after discovering
that sushi and Asian food in Australia is delicious and affordable, we heard, ‘Dan!?’ Dan turned and there was Josh, a friend of
Dan’s from CT. Now Dan knows a lot of people- when we’re out in CT, even in the
most odd places, there will be someone Dan bumps into and I’m used to this
happening at home. It’s a little crazy when it unexpectedly happens in an
Australian suburb. More so in Bingin, Indonesia, a relatively quiet spot in
Bali. We went to visit friends of ours in their swankier accommodation and 2
minutes later, ‘Christiana?’ The owners, Christiana and Mario know Dan from
Waldorf!
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| Bondi Beach |
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| Bond Beach- reminds me of Muizies |
After sadly bidding farewell to Jess and
Uriel, we were off to Melbourne- more specifically to visit Rowan and Becca on
Phillip Island (the Davson’s are well-connected in Aus it seems). After an
overnight train from Sydney to Melbourne that saved us on both accommodation
costs for the night as well as any comfort whatsoever, we arrived in the
morning and boarded our bus that would take us 2 hours out of the city. Melbourne
is cold. After weeks of humid, hot weather I was not mentally prepared.
Phillip Island is beautiful – a misty
island in full wintry gloom. And of course, it’s surrounded by surf. Dan and I spent
some time recovering there, being cared for with hot water bottles and
delicious home-cooked meals by R and B. We had one full day in Melbourne- we
joined Becca on her morning bus to work at 6 AM and spent the day exploring. We
joined a free walking tour round the city, had a look at the most spectacular
funky buildings, checked out the street art, looked at the theatre itineraries,
ate and drank as many cups of coffee as we could cope with at the hipster
alley restaurants, travelled on the trams across the city to a funky suburb for
lunch and I learnt pretty quickly that I could never absorb Melbourne in a day.
It is a truly cosmopolitan city and it would take months or even years to
explore its many layers.
Indonesia
To put things in perspective- Indonesia
comprises of 17000 islands- smaller and larger, inhabited and uninhabited.
Perhaps this blog should be titled Bali and surrounds then because we didn’t
put a dent into traveling through the whole of Indonesia. I still can’t tell
you much about Jakarta or Java. But I sure can tell you about Bali!
Dan and I have been here almost 30 days -
the maximum number of days allowed by our on-arrival visa. We have surfed
extensively, cycled, snorkeled beautiful fish-filled reefs, stayed in
accommodation of all comfort levels; we have shopped in chaotic Kuta and eaten super-food
smoothies in Ubud. We have squashed a lot of activity into our time here and it
has been a fulfilling and fun journey.
We started our trip with a two-week surf
trip with Ticket to Ride run by Dan’s school friend Sea Bond AKA Chris. We met
the gang of surfer Brits who’d already been on the trip for 2 weeks in Cangu
and took a 45-minute plane ride to Lombok, an island 2-3 hours out of Bali by
Ferry. In that first week we surfed 5-6
hours a day meeting for our first surf on the beach at first light and buzzing
through the water as the sun came up – always quicker than expected. We filled
the rest of the time eating meals, sleeping, and exploring the local village of
Gerupuk filled with chickens and cows and so many stray dogs that they would
gather in packs on the beach every afternoon sometimes howling through the
night.
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| Moonrise Gerupuk |
In Gerupuk we met Anton- our local surf
guide- someone who knows the spots backwards, and the happiest person I’ve ever
met. He is 28, married with a chubby little one-year-old and lives in a packed
home with his brother’s family. He surfs everyday. It was a treat to be
welcomed in to this small space to meet his family one afternoon. They offered
us tea, coffee, bananas, biscuits and these delicious Indonesian pastries with
bean filling that tastes remarkably like chocolate. We met his wife and sister
and niece and son. The TV blared soccer commentary around the corner of the small space with
an excited audience and we sat on mats where the family would sleep at night. The
experience was humbling and reminded me of where my priorities should lie.
After a week in Lombok, we travelled to
Noosa Lembongan for the second leg of our surf trip. A small island close to
Bali with a big tourist vibe I was happy to have a bigger area to explore.
Between surfs, Dan and I cruised around on our 50 000 Rupiah (approx. R45) a
day hired scooter and explored the island crossing over onto Noosa Ceningan by
rickety bridge to explore further.
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| Coconut time, Noosa Cenigen |
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| Dan and his Bintangs |
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| Cocktails by the pool |
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| scooter selfie |
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| Scooter view mirror selfie (accidental) |
Bali and Noosa Lembongan are largely Hindu
(other parts of Indonesia are 80% Muslim). Every single home, homestay, hotel,
bungalow will have a temple and every morning an offering is made and incense
burns. Offerings are usually made of pretty small hand-weaved shallow boxes and
flowers and usually contain a bit of food and even money. The ritual is short
and used ornate offering boxes fill the streets. One day, while eating an
outdoor freshly-caught fish ‘braai’ lunch after a quiet boat tour of the
mangrove swamp on the island, a rodent ran down from the rafters grabbed a cracker
from one of the offering boxes left over from the morning and disappeared into
the roof. Douglas Adams proved right again.
One of my favourite things about Bali is that people are named for their birth order and not by surname. For instance, if you are born first, your name might be 'Wayan', 'Gede' or 'Putu', second- 'Made' or 'Kadek', 3rd- 'Nyoman', 4th- Ketut. There are many variations and the same names apply for both genders. If you're number 5 in birth order, the cycle starts again! Our first taxi driver greeted us on arrival. 'G'day,' he said. 'Good day,' I replied. 'No Gede,' he corrected gesturing towards himself and then explained.
Ticket to Ride was a fantastic experience –
my surfing improved with exposure to LOTS of waves and Chris’ expert guidance.
I also gained some insight into how hard I can be on myself when I’m not
getting something right. As soon as I
relaxed and focused on having fun I surfed better and, even if I didn’t, I had
more fun- something that should always be the number one priority. Surfing is
mental sport and there is space for improvement at almost any level. It’s messy
and I had to learn to pop (stand up on the board) right at the top of a wave
and risk falling rather than waiting for everything to look and feel perfect.
In one of the best pep talks Chris gave me, he told me about his most
challenging pupil- a pilates instructor. Perfectly built for surfing with
strength and a strong core she struggled to stand up at the correct time
because while pilates is ‘perfect’, learning to surf is decidedly not. I got my
first proper open face wave right after that. Success!
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| Open face success! Playgrounds (thanks to Chris Bond for this and the following few pics) |
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| Dan, Outside Right (photo: Chris Bond Inc) |
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| Old Mans, Canggu (photo: Chris Bond Inc) |
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| Hanging out- Inside Right, Gerupuk (photo: Chris Bond Inc) |
Indonesia is naturally and culturally beautiful, the people famous for their friendliness and trustworthiness. It is also dirty in places and if you look the wrong way you may find yourself looking at a back alley filled with rubbish. There is nothing quite like that sulphur-sewerage smell that hits you unexpectedly in the busy areas (reminiscent for me of Bankok) or the wetness of mud- coloured street water spraying against your calves after squelching through a puddle in your slip slops. So choosing were to stay is important- and that meant minimal time in chaotic, crazy Kuta.
So after a night or 2 back in Bali, Warren and Jaime (friends of
ours from CT and on TTRide), Dan and I travelled to Ubud. Ubud is a yoga, health
food and art ‘village’ in central Bali. Dan and I arrived at our accommodation
and found to our delight we had an outside traditional bath built into the
floor to ourselves. We spent our time exploring by scooter, visiting the many
art galleries and whole lot of time at Bali Buddha a restaurant with great
coffee and amazing food- all healthy and delicious (something we’d been craving
after all that nasi goring: fried rice).
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| Fish Spa, Ubud. The Garra Rufe or 'Doctor Fish' eat the dead skin off one's feet. And yes, they do nip! |
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| Mom and babe, Monkey Temple, Ubud |
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| Danny as a child- cute thing! |
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| Dan after being bitten by a monkey! |
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| In happier times. |
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| Monkey Temple, Ubud |
In our 2 weeks out of Bali the lack of good
coffee was a source of suffering for me. ‘Bali coffee’ is ground coffee with
hot water added to it. ♯nofilter I was
relieved to find some good coffee again (flat white my fav) and I was
tempted to make an offering of some kind I felt such acute gratitude. On a trip
to a coffee plantation on our eco tour- we came across the famous Kopi Luwak.
This is coffee made from fermented egested beans of a civet. A cat-like
creature, the civet eats the ripest coffee berries and thus chooses the best
coffee beans to ferment in its stomach. It then egests these choice beans after
which they are sold for a small fortune. I had a cup of Kopi Luwak but no
espresso style shot was forthcoming and I didn’t appreciate my Bali coffee Kopi
Luwak experience as much as I assume is possible if prepared correctly. (We took some beans home from Duty Free so I'll keep you posted)
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| Kopi Luwak on the right- much lighter in colour |
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| Look how pineapples grow! |
Our eco trip had started from Ubud on a 25
km downhill cycle tour. For some reason I chose the squeakiest bike and so
squawked loudly down the gentle hills whenever I pressed my breaks in too
vigorously. It was a phenomenal experience. Not only for the natural beauty of
the place. Tour- our aptly named tour guide first stopped us at a local home. Brother’s
families will live together (sisters move to their new husbands family home),
the grandparents occupying the most elevated structure (which they vacate for
newlyweds ;). I had imagined that behind these homes there would be more
streets with more homes. Instead there was jungle. Trees growing big fat
papaya. Chickens and Cows (fed on grass and bananas) and pigs in pens. The mothers cook for the family once a day-
there is no breakfast, lunch or supper and people eat when hungry- usually a
rice-based meal. Soon after we saw first hand where the rice came from. Ladies
in the field scythed, thrashed and cleaned out the rice in the baking hot sun.
We had a hand in the thrashing. We asked questions. I risked offense by
enquiring the age of one of the ladies. She didn’t know her age but estimated
it to be around 65. She looked older.
These ladies were paid in rice- 2 bags out of every 10 collected. Backbreaking
work to provide food from the land for their families. A few kilometers a way you can order a
superfood smoothie. I’ve never wanted to grow my own food as much as I do now.
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| The bike tour starts, Ubud |
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| scything rice, Ubud |
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| chilli farming, Ubud |
The last 2 days of our Eco tour were spent
snorkeling (the best snorkeling I’ve ever experienced) and visiting a coffee
plantation, bat cave/temple and a water temple. While we were in the car way
too much, we saw a huge chunk of Bali and I would like to spend some more time
in Ahmed, a beautiful little town known for its diving and sailing.
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| Feeling funky. Temple Lodge, Bingin |
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| Driftwood Suite, Temple Lodge, Bingin |
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| Bye until next time |
