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Arrive at Sister's -Nullarbor Story

G'day Mate!

The past few weeks have been a bit of an adventure. As most of you know, I went to Australia without a solid plan to get from Perth to my sisters house, which was 2,300 kilometers away. I made it and I've been hangin withy my sister Kelli for a few weeks! Here's how I got there and what I'm up to...

In Perth I was hanging out at the Hostel and sightseeing hoping to find some people going east. I really hoped to find someone I could hitch a ride with and help split costs. I wasn't having any luck at all and I was paying 20 bucks a night staying in Perth with no plan to get to my sister's place. The bus, train, and plain tickets were all going to cost around 400 bucks one-way. Perth was nice but I needed to get moving.  To search for people who were taking riders I was going every day to the bulletin boards at all the local backpacker hostels (there are a crazy amount of backpacker hostels in Perth).

I kept seeing adverts for cars for sale but way out of my price range. One was for a 1984 Ford Falcon for sale for $1,200. After a few days the ad was changed to $1,000. Then to $800. Down to $600 and at $500 I finally called the dude up. Turns out this Irish guy had a plane ticket leaving Australia on Friday three days later and wanted someone to buy his car but he needed it until 4:30 on Thursday cause he was working all they way up until his last day in the country. We agreed on 500 bucks and I was the owner of a new car henceforth to be called Yolanda- The Millennium Falcon [See Photo on Ball of Dirt]. I just had to wait till he was finished with his work and ready to leave to receive the goods. Big stress relief but still not a complete solution cause now I had to drive half way across the country.

Now instead looking for ride I was looking for riders myself. I was putting up notices on the bulletin boards looking for riders who wanted to go the way I was heading and for people who would split gas for the trip. I'll cliff-note this and just say that I had no luck finding riders so I had to leave on Thursday night by myself with the weight of fuel falling fully on my debit card.

I was going to cross the Nullarbor Plain, one of the more remote places in Australia, alone in my 500-dollar car, with my luggage, a jerry can of extra fuel, and two jerry cans for drinking water. I went to fill Yolanda up before I left Perth and it cost me $100 cause she was almost empty. Ouch! I knew over the next couple thousand kilometers I was for sure top have to fill'er up a few more times again but the damage was done and I had a car.

NOW, I can say that the car was one of the best deals I have ever got in my life. But at the time I was so worried that she would just break down in the middle of the trip and I'd be stuck in the middle of nowhere without transportation and without any other options. Stranded on the highway with a huge amount of luggage in the middle of the Australian bush/desert and no way of getting or paying my way to my sisters. But it was a chance I took.

I went to a supermarket first and loaded up on nutrient rich foods that wouldn't spoil. They would be my food source for the next three days. It was one large loaf of whole grain sliced bread, bag of apples, whole wheat breakfast bars, jar of peanut butter, jar of jelly, two boxes of crackers, box of dried fruit, four cans of baked beans, and some random other goodies. If you noticed I was going for a high-fiber theme. That's cause a three day drive with lots of sitting can affect your body. If you try something similar I suggest you eat lots of fiber for intestinal comfort.

Off I went into the east hoping the falcon would hold together. I drove all evening up until about 2am and I stopped for fuel for fear that I would run the dry cause "E" was rapidly approaching. I looked on the map that I had gone 580k from Perth. A respectable distance. At the next town, Kalgoorlie, the gold capital of Australia, I pulled off into one of the roadside parks to sleep. I spread my bedding across the back seat and slept till morning.

I got up at 7.30 and started a whole day's continuous driving. I stopped only for eating, and for fuel. Once I had to use my 10-liter Jerry can cause I had misjudged the gas tanks capacity and the next petrol station's distance. When I came cruising in on vapors it was the closest I came to a real hiccup the whole journey.

But during driving that day I had lots of time to think cause there was very little parts where the radio signal was strong enough to tune in. The drive was beautiful. It went from the lush tree and bush vegetation right off the coast and the hills to a long rolling bush of lesser and lesser trees. The soil was reddish clay with burnt hues. Scrub was all about in a kind of prickly rugged but rich vegetation and the trees were the type you imagine or see in Africa where they are really dry looking with foliage only on the top. There aren't many rounded trees. [See tree photos on Ball of Dirt].

All on the road and near the road I saw an incomprehensible amount of road kill. Mostly comprised of kangaroos I thought to myself that I had definitely seen more dead kangaroos than live ones. The cadavers were everywhere and many of them looked fresh. At the same time there were hundreds of crows and raven type black birds that would jump away from the carcasses as I drove by only to return seconds later. The king of all those birds is this amazing eagle with a huge wingspan easily as wide as my car. I didn't see many eagles but they were impressive each time I saw them.

As the sun began to set I now realized where all the carcasses were coming from. Hundreds of kangaroos were feeding on the vegetation that grows next to the road (when it rains the water runs off to the sides so there are more plants next to the road). They also like to lay on the road because it stays warmer longer than the land. Anyway, there were so many kangaroos hanging out it felt like playing a video game. Just don't hit the target jumping our in front of you. I was waiting to find a nice parking area with facilities but I pulled off at the next one even though it was just a standard rest area car park.

Funny side note about driving in the Outback:  [See Photos on Ball of Dirt]

There are pretty dangerous road conditions in Oz. Thank god the roads are completely strait or it would be a losing battle. There are hundreds of miles of unfenced roads with an unfathomable amount of wildlife ready to jump out at you. Some of the signs look as if they are some kind of roadside joke begging you to take a picture with yourself in front of them. One sign was a huge roadside advertisement-size billboard. It was a huge yellow caution sign with silhouette pictures of a camel, kangaroo, cow, horse, ostrich, emu, and some other animal (no clue). The signs reads "Unfenced road next 250km beware of animals on road". Then they periodically remind you of this with individual animal signs. They also have all these signs that say "DROWSY DRIVERS DIE" and "SURVIVE THIS DRIVE: REST". There are several alternate messages but you get the gist. Every 10-15 kilometers they have manmade rest areas. Some of them are just areas to park your car and sleep. Some have a well and a solar powered emergency phone, some have fire pits, and bathrooms, and varying degrees of the above facilities. It is strongly encouraged that you do not drive at night out in the bush unless you are a road train (See next section) or your vehicle is prepared to keep on going. If you do drive they suggest you have roo bars to keep your car from getting totaled when you invariable hit a kangaroo. So I slept in those roadside rest areas.

Road Train [See Photo on Ball of Dirt]:

 In Australia they have huge tractor-trailers that pull up to four or more trailers behind them. They are bigger than the garden variety US style tractor trailers. They are big and wide with huge bars on their grill to deflect any type of animals that get in their way. When a road train is coming your way you slow down and maybe even pull off the road to let it past cause the windblast is killer and heaven forbid you hit it you would probably total your car and they wouldn't even know it unless they took the time to look in their rearview. There are a lot of road trains on the roads cause they handle a bulk amount of the commercial freight in Australia. I imagine that they don't even slow down for animals unless it's bigger than a large motorbike cause they are so sturdy. They sound like jet plains when you pass them.
 

Back to the story:

That night I ate my dinner before it got too dark to see. I gathered up a bit of twigs and dried brush for a fire. There were still trees in the landscape but now it felt and looked more like a bushy plain. Because it was spring the plants were in bloom with lots of flowers. I suspect, that what is usually dry brown bush, was bright olive green and very pretty. It was still the end of winter and the beginning of spring so there weren't any fire bans. I had a nice little fire and watched the stars come out. The desert is a perfect place for viewing stars cause it is so dry that all the stars shine so bright-even the dim ones are visible. The Milky Way was so pronounced that it was awe-inspiring. Also there are a few different constellations because the southern hemisphere has a different viewing angle. The Southern Cross can be seen hanging in the southern part of the sky. I was asleep by 11:30pm because I was tired out from the drive.

Then next morning I began my drive by 8 am and set out to cross the final part of the most remote part of the land that I would be traversing. Up to where I had stopped the night before you could see the bush thinning as I progressed. The culmination is where the road crosses a part of the Nullarbor Plain. The Nullarbor is a very strait and very remote seemingly never-ending treeless scrub brush plain that ends on the edge of the continent where the cliffs drop down into the Southern Ocean. It is a huge plain but the road crosses just a small segment of it along the southern coast. It ends on the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight, which is the great rugged coastline of Australia speckled with white-sanded beaches and meeting the beautiful blue sea. Viewing the coast from the cliffs is breathtaking. Knowing that you are sandwiched between cliffs at your front with thousands of kilometers of unforgiving desert land nothingness is a keen sensation. At one point the road sign says that you are on "Australia's Straightest Road" which goes on completely strait as an arrow for nearly two hours. At another point they draw your attention to the "Great Treeless Plain". No, there aren't any trees as far as the eye can see. You get a chance to understand the horizon in places like that. In fact, "Null Arbor" is from Latin for "no trees". [See Photo on Ball of Dirt]

Crossing the actual Nullarbor is probably not as big as an accomplishment as is driving from Perth to my sisters in the time that I was making. And I was making very good time. Anyhow, having crossed the harshest part of the landscape I crossed onto the Eyre Peninsula. The transition of topography and vegetation is sudden.  Replacing the dry and flat scrub were green rolling plains of large wheat fields. My words could never do the beautiful scenery transition much justice but it was a very quick change of sights in my surroundings in under an hour. My sister lives in the southwestern part of the Eyre Peninsula about 60 km north of Port Lincoln so even though I had about 300 km left to go I felt I had arrived and I knew that the worst was behind me. This was very pleasing. Yolanda-The Mellinium Falcon would, now, surely go the distance... [Just in case you want to know my exact route I have the drive mapped out on a photo]

I rolled up into my sister's about four hours later around midnight. It felt so good to know that I could now relax and have time to settle in. Ever since I left my apartment in July I have been in more or less a temporary and transient traveling mode. In three months I only slept about 10 times in a bed. Most of my time was spent in a tent or on the floor/couch when I was crashing at friends' places. Thanks to all of you who let me crash on your floor/lakeside property/couch... But I am glad that all of that is over. I have a guaranteed bed for as long as I stay here.

My sister has a piece of property that has two houses side by side. One is a real house with a big veranda and all the trimmings like a garage. Off to the side there is an old small hut that was the first house that the original owners built. The hut is 130 years old and is a very little house. It has a little bathroom, a living room, a bedroom, and a tiny kitchen. The living room and bedroom have fireplaces that share a chimney. It's all really old and quaint. Anyway, the hut is where I stay. [See Photo on Ball of Dirt]

People have asked me about my sister's place. It isn't a farm exactly it looks like it would be a few acres of property. But she has chickens that lay eggs and lots of garden and a diverse selection of fruit trees. There are a lot of similarities in my friend from Holland's place who, if you remember, I was staying with on the lake in Romania. My sister's property is big enough to be a constant chore to maintain but not so large that you could grow whole crops of produce on it. She has two neighbors. All three houses are located together, I would suspect, because where they are located is kind of a natural oasis. It's a lower point of land at the base of some hills. When the dry season hits after November everything turns brown in this area (its an arid zone) and most of the vegetation dies. But in this area there are trees and some natural shade. The soil would be moister and the well would supply more water in this area. With exception of those three houses here together, there isn't anyone within range of hearing your scream. The nearest towns (Couta and Coffin Bay) are a fair bit away and it is nearly an hour away from Port Lincoln. Port Lincoln seems smaller than Beckley but a bit larger than Miercurea Ciuc.

The first few weeks at my sisters have been fun. My sister had a seafood barbeque on the day of her birthday with her friends and my nephew Kye's grandparents. We ate all kinds of shellfish and other fresh delicacies. Kye's grandparents came down for his birthday for a few weeks. I had just missed my Kye's birthday the week earlier but I got to wish him a happy birthday too. Later on the weekend we celebrated Kelli's birthday for real with a pre-pub barbi and sausage sizzle in Lincoln where we would go later to the pub to see friends of hers play in their bands. It's still the only time I have been out for real in Lincoln so far. We got kind of crazy but that's another story.

I've helped her doing odd jobs around her property. So far, that has included some mulching and garden work. I've been trying to kill some aggressive beehives that are trying to stake their claim on the homestead. We've been killing them cause when you go around the property too close to "their" home they have a bad habit of attacking. Anyway as of tonight they should all be dead cause we got some killing powder that works really well. Also, we weeded her garden and took out four wheelbarrow loads of weeds. Its crazy how many weeds can grow in a garden!

I want to emphasize how nice it is to have her garden as a food source. Every day I can go out and pick a head of lettuce and other assorted greens to make a fresh salad. She has a crazy amount of herbs that grow like weeds so they grow faster than our eating. Fresh mint and lemon balm tea anytime!!! In the 3 years that I lived in Romania green lettuce was something of a treat and I really missed it. Lately it is something that I can eat anytime I want. I've been making some of the largest fresh salads! Plus she has chickens so everyday we have fresh laid eggs.

I went to the beach o a few times. It's just a few minutes away. I thought it was closer but it's just a five-minute drive away. The beach is totally pristine and completely free from other people. The water is beautiful but really cold. I went swimming just for a second to get myself wet. The way the ocean current works out around here makes the water cold cause the water is essentially melted ice from Antarctica. It keeps the water a beautiful blue color but chillingly cold. [See Photos on Ball of Dirt]

It hasn't been as warm as I would like. The weather here right now is something like the weather in West Virginia or Transylvania during the summer. It gets up to the low 20s centigrade during the day but it gets cold at night. In Ciuc and in WV we could always have fires in the night in the summer cause it gets cold. I was hoping that I would be walking right into a summer environment. It looks like I'm going to have to wait a bit longer. But even now as I write this weather is very warm outside. Its definitely "shorts" weather but when the sun goes down it will get chilly and I'll want to have a sweatshirt and long pants. Because it's still early spring the sun goes down much earlier. Daylight savings time will come soon and that will help adjust but it's usually dark by 7pm. But we have a wood stove and a nice toasty fire on colder evenings.

In casual conversation I'm told that all this is soon to change. People keep talking about water controls and their rainwater tanks and about the fire ban that will soon come. In this area everyone drinks rainwater. Kelli has a huge system of tanks attached to her roofing that collect the rain in the wet season and fill up to act as reservoirs for the dry times [See Photo on Ball of Dirt]. Her well is temporarily dry cause it needs to be dug deeper but even then she only uses it for washing clothes and flushing toilets. There isn't any industry here and the rainwater is clean due to the source (remember I said the sea is melted ice from Antarctica- The rain is from the sea) so the rainwater is pristine. Rainwater is very soft too. The first time I took a shower in rainwater I used way too much soap cause soft water makes soap work a hundred times better. It tastes really nice too even though I really miss the carbonated mineral water from Romania.

People casually say that places around their property are looking a bit "snakey" referring to the growing grass and warming weather that makes snakes want to come out. I killed my first snakes! They were either Eastern Browns or King Browns (also known as a Mulgas) that were hanging around my sister's garden. Evidently it's a pretty nasty snake. It wasn't big but it would have been half my height. It wasn't very thick. I later asked a friend what I could expect if I had been bitten. He replied "agonizing pain and a quick death". Turns out it isn't the kind of snake you survive a bite from unless you very quickly receive the antivenom and we are far enough away that it could be too far to get treatment in time. But never fear cause the snakes are dead now!

Now that I'm here I'm able to assess the whole situation of work and what I should do for my future, career, livelihood, and all those worries. I've been thinking a lot about what I should do and I think I will stay here for a while. I'm in the process of filing for extended tourist stay or maybe residency. Its not much more than the same thing I had to do in Romania. Basically, someone has to sponsor me so that I won't be the government of Australia's social welfare problem. I'm looking for jobs here in fields that interest me. If I find a good job open and they want me then the employer can sponsor a work visa really easily. For sure though I should get approved to stay here at least a year as a tourist as long as I stay with my sister.

There looks like there might be a lot of jobs here working in development (even planning if I have to slum...J to you planners reading this)! But Australia is kind of backwards to America. Australia has 20 million people for a landmass nearly the size of the United States. There are lots of jobs but a shortage of trained professionals to take them. In the states it's the opposite. There are a crazy amount of trained professionals but not enough jobs to go around. So hopefully I will benefit from this. I heard about a community development officer job open up in this aboriginal community that is super remote (hours away from civilization) and I'm checking into it. But, I have to take one step in front of the other so I am starting with filing my visa forms. Until they get processed I can't really give much information. I'm still applying for those jobs that I've been talking about for the past few months. I hope that I will get a job with the IRC or Mercy Corps but my applications have fallen on deaf ears and I can't rely on it.

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