The last real post I made was after an underwater adventure with Nemo in which I was able to not throw up!! Things have happened since then and here they are. From Cairns my ragged group of travelers first headed about 4 hours north to where Capt James Cook shipwrecked. This was off a hot tip from a local. Well F, that guy nc the only thing in cooktown was........? It still has yet to be discovered. We talked in Deliverance accents and were happen no one was, well you know. Cooktown also notes our first night in the van and my post about my panic attack.
We got the heck out of there and stopped in the northern Australia rainforest for a couple of nights. This is where I was able to connect with fellow American traveler Joey Lawrence. The Brits went on a tour and I went for a jog. Out of nowhere the muscleman that is Joe was on the side of the road and taking me on a tour of the ole swimming hole. So after a Stand By Me walk across some train tracks. We got to the giant rope swing. We were met by about 12,000 Mosquitos, but that was not nearly the worst of it. I walked around the creek to get a safe passage into the water. I picked the wrong route. I heard a rustle in the bushes and before I know it I was face to face with a man eating extra from the movie Anaconda. ( after calming down and doing some research it was actually a non venomous green treen snake that was about 3 feet long). My girlish screams were enough to keep the snake away, but after he went into the water that made the chances of me going in 0.0%.
We left Port Douglas the next day and drove back to Cairns to restock. I'd wouldn't say the trip up was a waste cause I got to see Joey, but it was, sorry Joe.
After the brief stay in Cairns the crew went south to Townsville. A city with NOTHING, but military bases, a few bars and more guys if the military guys were not enough. We stayed for four days. Our planning thus far had not been up to par. Rested and relaxed the next dot on the map was Airlie Beach. From where we have just left. Airlie Beach was an amazing time, thanks mostly to the three day boat cruise to the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Whitsunday/white haven beach is pretty much the beach in your dreams. The sand was so fine it squeaked as you walked through it and apparently can clean silver. Enough about the sites, how about some boat stories??
Our group was the first to arrive at the pickup point, so we had the luck of counting the numerous groups of guys that kept joining our cruise. 8:2 guys, 13:2 guys, we ended 22:8 guys/girls ratio, but that didn't matter to me, bc I was deep into some ad Nelson and knew I could create my own fun. "You are the craziest American...no, guy I've met so far". How I was described by my new French buddy Alex. I guess you get me on a boat full of booze, food, sun, beaches, and about 14 Germans that I can't stand, and I go a little wild. Activities such as trying to drown your friends snorkeling, jumping from the boat, getting the female cook so drink she passes out in your bed, causing you to sleep in the iPod room that was about 2'x4', sleeping on the top deck and waking up 5 minutes after the sun comes up. Oh and my favorite exchange of the trip
Deckhand: " you boys going snorkeling?"
Brit #1 "what are the chances we see a sea turtle?"
Me "or a shark"
Deckhand "actually the water is really murkey and you'd be lucky to see much of anything. (He was holding a boat of ten people waiting to go snorkel while we decide.
Me "hey you idiots in the boat have a great time (it was the Germans, so don't get mad, bc I was rude, they started it.
The trip has been amazing and since leaving airlie we have bombed about 12 hours down to hippie central Byron bay. After stoping in Brisbane for a $8.50 showing of Star Trek. F yeah!!!!
Ill write about this place and the hippies next time.
11 days left in the van. Not that I'm counting.
What's going on in your lives???
Scott
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Quick update
I am bummed out that its been so long since I've had a chance to write on here, but typing from the iPod on pirated Internet is really a pain. So I will do a quick post just to check in. I am alive, going broke, and living a gypsy life. Couple nights ago I slept outside the van on the side of the road. It rained.
Current location: airlie beach and its been a blast. Beach volleyball, sleeping in a tent and trivia every night. Bout as good as it gets. Internet is still super spotty and I won't have a good connection until I finally get to Brisbane.
I have been chronicling all the things I need to post later but here is a taste of the posts to come:
- living in a van, it's exactly as terrible as it sounds
- was about 3 feet from a snake in the wild, did not do well composure wise
-Germans everywhere
-the Brits really love their hometown food, beans with every meal
-I've read 6 books. Breaking the total I read from 1996-2012.
- easy Mac is still delicious.
-I need a job or to win the lottery
- still hate the $2 coin
-had a clostrophobic panic attack in the van: that was a new experience
- got to talk to mom on Mother's Day: little things mean a lot
-my fantasy baseball team is doing way better without me
- how did I not win the bigger dance??
-common daily question: what day is it? (Day of the week)
-a tiny kangaroo humped my leg
-I'm immune to most bug bites by now: hand to god was bit while I typed that
-I now know I could be on survivor
- life gets pretty smelly when showers are a luxury
- clothes are now worn based on what smells best. Currently wearing a bathing suit and kemp jersey
That's all for now. I swear when I hit a city
Ill write more and post pictures!
Current location: airlie beach and its been a blast. Beach volleyball, sleeping in a tent and trivia every night. Bout as good as it gets. Internet is still super spotty and I won't have a good connection until I finally get to Brisbane.
I have been chronicling all the things I need to post later but here is a taste of the posts to come:
- living in a van, it's exactly as terrible as it sounds
- was about 3 feet from a snake in the wild, did not do well composure wise
-Germans everywhere
-the Brits really love their hometown food, beans with every meal
-I've read 6 books. Breaking the total I read from 1996-2012.
- easy Mac is still delicious.
-I need a job or to win the lottery
- still hate the $2 coin
-had a clostrophobic panic attack in the van: that was a new experience
- got to talk to mom on Mother's Day: little things mean a lot
-my fantasy baseball team is doing way better without me
- how did I not win the bigger dance??
-common daily question: what day is it? (Day of the week)
-a tiny kangaroo humped my leg
-I'm immune to most bug bites by now: hand to god was bit while I typed that
-I now know I could be on survivor
- life gets pretty smelly when showers are a luxury
- clothes are now worn based on what smells best. Currently wearing a bathing suit and kemp jersey
That's all for now. I swear when I hit a city
Ill write more and post pictures!
Friday, May 3, 2013
Ever thrown up......underwater??
I am going to try and type all this out from a phone so please bear with me, as I am sure I will get frustrated and throw it across the room and have to start over multiple times. I think last I updated I was about to go scuba diving. That day has come and gone and here is the tale that goes with it.
The scuba bus picked me up at 6:45 in the morning. Fresh of a going away party and about 3 hours sleep I was primed and ready for my first ever underwater experience. I signed up for an intro dive and could snorkel the reef the rest of the time the boat was out. Things started off poorly as I tried to board the wrong ship and had to be ferried to the correct one so that I made it on in time. The day was warm and a cyclone had just hit the see we were about to sail on. To say the ride was choppy does not do it justice. Take "Deadliest Catch" and back it off a couple of notches. We were told to sit inside for the 1 hr or so ride. People began vomiting nearly immediately. Like 10 minutes into it. Asian guy sitting right across from me went through 5 puke bags before they had even introduced the crew.
They seat you with your diving groups. Groups of four and I was in group one. Group one consisted of myself, Asian guy, his gf, and a middle aged lady. Scratch the Asian couple off instantly, then never got up from that point on. The water had beaten them. Now add a couple of brothers from Ireland that were about my age. Much like Willy Wonka's factory tour, we started progressively losing people at each checkpoint. Asian couple-Augustus Gloup. Next we were suited up and I'm the water learning how to use the tanks. It was pretty damn cool. As we dunked our heads and breathed through the regulators for the first time, Irish brother #2 had a full meltdown and was pulled out. He went out saying "my mates are going to give me much shit at home for this." Group is down to three. The next step I'm the process was to lower ourselves down a metal ladder to get used to breathing underwater. We hit ladder 2 and middle aged girl had ear pain and was pulled out. She's done for the day, down to me and Irish #1. At this point I am astonished how well I am doing, as its my first time and the three thoughts going through my head are 1) this is amazing. 2) breath, you really have to remind yourself and 3) don't throw up- watching the others earlier combined with the bumpy ride was not helping me with this task.
Last step in the training process was to let go of our regulator underwater. Stay composed and the re-insert it. Again, my three steps thought process got me right though the task. Just me, Irish #1 let go of his and could not get it back. The instructor had to grab it for him and he was spooked to the point of calling it quits. Group #1- just me. So, I got a solo 20 minute underwater trip. I tell you this, the cyclone made visibility so bad it was hard too see too much. Nothing exotic that's for sure, however, I still had the most amazing time. I would have signed up to just swim around in a pool if the would have let me.
Group #2 did not fair much better than group one as I watched them one by one come out of the water. In the end, one girl made it all the way through, but she was visibly not having a good time. They asked us if we wanted to go again and for $40 I quickly jumped at the chance. Our next dive spot was much clearer and again I got the instructor all to myself. This time however I kept getting acid reflux burps and as unpleasant as they are on the surface. They are 1,000,000x worse underwater. I quickly abandoned breath and enjoy yourself and focused on not throwing up. Now, it would make a better story if I say I pulled out my regulator and became an underwater volcano of puke, and calmly put it back in. Sadly, none of that happened and I was perfectly fine.....until the ride home.
The boat trip back was much worse than out. The usual suspects were at it again, throwing up all over the place. We were forced to sit inside again, and this proved deadly for me as my seat faced backwards. Ever felt sick sitting in the back of a friends old school Volvo (Ryan Duncan)? It was much like that, and with several other passengers already throwing up (puke seems to be the focus of this post, I swear the scuba was amazing). Like Andy Defurame against the sisters at Shawshank I fight the good fight. As our instructor came over to give me my dive complete certificate I jerked up and instantly threw up in my mouth, caught it all in, and put it back from whence it came. I was not about to become another statistic. We got back into harbor and the mission was complete. What a day!!
Here are the few pics I took. God I am cheap. Never mind I can't figure out how to do them from my phone. Have to post them later and use you imaginations for now. Tomorrow I embark on a 30 road trip down the east coast in a 1976 pos campervan, with three awesome English dudes. Hopefully we all come out of it alive and sane. Going to be tons to write about that is for sure.
The scuba bus picked me up at 6:45 in the morning. Fresh of a going away party and about 3 hours sleep I was primed and ready for my first ever underwater experience. I signed up for an intro dive and could snorkel the reef the rest of the time the boat was out. Things started off poorly as I tried to board the wrong ship and had to be ferried to the correct one so that I made it on in time. The day was warm and a cyclone had just hit the see we were about to sail on. To say the ride was choppy does not do it justice. Take "Deadliest Catch" and back it off a couple of notches. We were told to sit inside for the 1 hr or so ride. People began vomiting nearly immediately. Like 10 minutes into it. Asian guy sitting right across from me went through 5 puke bags before they had even introduced the crew.
They seat you with your diving groups. Groups of four and I was in group one. Group one consisted of myself, Asian guy, his gf, and a middle aged lady. Scratch the Asian couple off instantly, then never got up from that point on. The water had beaten them. Now add a couple of brothers from Ireland that were about my age. Much like Willy Wonka's factory tour, we started progressively losing people at each checkpoint. Asian couple-Augustus Gloup. Next we were suited up and I'm the water learning how to use the tanks. It was pretty damn cool. As we dunked our heads and breathed through the regulators for the first time, Irish brother #2 had a full meltdown and was pulled out. He went out saying "my mates are going to give me much shit at home for this." Group is down to three. The next step I'm the process was to lower ourselves down a metal ladder to get used to breathing underwater. We hit ladder 2 and middle aged girl had ear pain and was pulled out. She's done for the day, down to me and Irish #1. At this point I am astonished how well I am doing, as its my first time and the three thoughts going through my head are 1) this is amazing. 2) breath, you really have to remind yourself and 3) don't throw up- watching the others earlier combined with the bumpy ride was not helping me with this task.
Last step in the training process was to let go of our regulator underwater. Stay composed and the re-insert it. Again, my three steps thought process got me right though the task. Just me, Irish #1 let go of his and could not get it back. The instructor had to grab it for him and he was spooked to the point of calling it quits. Group #1- just me. So, I got a solo 20 minute underwater trip. I tell you this, the cyclone made visibility so bad it was hard too see too much. Nothing exotic that's for sure, however, I still had the most amazing time. I would have signed up to just swim around in a pool if the would have let me.
Group #2 did not fair much better than group one as I watched them one by one come out of the water. In the end, one girl made it all the way through, but she was visibly not having a good time. They asked us if we wanted to go again and for $40 I quickly jumped at the chance. Our next dive spot was much clearer and again I got the instructor all to myself. This time however I kept getting acid reflux burps and as unpleasant as they are on the surface. They are 1,000,000x worse underwater. I quickly abandoned breath and enjoy yourself and focused on not throwing up. Now, it would make a better story if I say I pulled out my regulator and became an underwater volcano of puke, and calmly put it back in. Sadly, none of that happened and I was perfectly fine.....until the ride home.
The boat trip back was much worse than out. The usual suspects were at it again, throwing up all over the place. We were forced to sit inside again, and this proved deadly for me as my seat faced backwards. Ever felt sick sitting in the back of a friends old school Volvo (Ryan Duncan)? It was much like that, and with several other passengers already throwing up (puke seems to be the focus of this post, I swear the scuba was amazing). Like Andy Defurame against the sisters at Shawshank I fight the good fight. As our instructor came over to give me my dive complete certificate I jerked up and instantly threw up in my mouth, caught it all in, and put it back from whence it came. I was not about to become another statistic. We got back into harbor and the mission was complete. What a day!!
Here are the few pics I took. God I am cheap. Never mind I can't figure out how to do them from my phone. Have to post them later and use you imaginations for now. Tomorrow I embark on a 30 road trip down the east coast in a 1976 pos campervan, with three awesome English dudes. Hopefully we all come out of it alive and sane. Going to be tons to write about that is for sure.
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