Where did THAT come from?

Seems hard to believe I’ve already been on the Big Adventure for that long… but when I sit down and think about it, it actually feels like I’ve been traveling for longer than that. I’ve done so many things done in that four months; met so many people; visited so many places; uploaded so many bloody photos… :-)

Despite feeling a little hungover (it was “Billy Bob’s BBQ Night” at the Grace Emily Hotel last night, complete with live “Open Mic” music and lots of cheap Cooper’s Sparkling) I’m in good spirits still.

I’ve been having time to think about things – you know, the sort of stuff that you really don’t get time to contemplate when you’re busy being stressed over computers, radio and all the other things I filled my life with before coming out here – and I must say I’m feeling more positive about life than I have done in a long time. This is, officially, a Good Thing™.

It’s not to say that I’ve not had times when I’ve been feeling down – because I have – but I think through interacting with so many different people, challenging myself a fair bit and having more time to reflect on things I feel like I’m understanding myself better, which is really helping me towards the positive thinking thing.

Let’s just hope it continues when I get back to the good ol’ UK, eh? :-)

Since the last big post, I’ve been enjoying the company of some of my mates from the New Zealand trip (Jen and Kate, howdy!), their cool roommate (Amy, g’day!) and also the Brisbane legends that were my roommates (AJ, Kirsten – your faces’ faces (don’t ask)). More on them in a blog in the next day or so, I’d wager.

I’ve been traipsing around the Grampians (standing on rocky ledges that I would’ve never even considered about a year ago) and enjoying the sights along the Great Ocean Road (and the rather “interesting” “sense of humour” of our ace tour guide Billy – some classic Billy Quotes on the way soon… they’re worse than my punning. Seriously).

So far in Adelaide I’ve been to some wineries, beaches and for a nice walk amongst some hills (on a day trip some of us from the G.O.R. tour decided to do – complete with a great clapped out old hire van), and a bit of social entertainment (see above).

Now I’m doing a big ol’ catchup. Photos from the Great Ocean Road leg are being uploaded as I type (provided Flickr Uploadr hasn’t broken half way through uploading – again) and I’m going to be spending some of this afternoon and tomorrow blogging (yes, yes, watching Squage blog :-) ) in earnest.

Oooh yeah – other bits I’m now definitely doing:

20th March
Flying from Alice Springs to Perth, and checking into the rather ace looking Bam’bu Backpackers.

22nd March
Getting on board a few-days-long tour around Albany, Margaret River and the South West courtesy of Adventure “We Own Everything” Tours.

24th March
Checking back into Bam’bu.

27th March
Slinging my bags into yet another minibus, this time to head up to the lovely Broome via the pretty awesome-looking 9 day Perth to Broome Safari (you’ll never guess which company runs that). There’ll be crazy rock climbing, hiking, animal interaction, plus forgetting the date and falling for one or more April Fool’s pranks along the way!

4th April
Arriving at Broome in a hostel by Cable Beach, spending 4 days sunbathing, swimming and doing little else.

8th April
Jetting off to Darwin via the cheap-as-chips(-god-I-hope-the-plane-doesn’t-fall-apart) Skywest Airlines and spending a few days browsing the city – and perhaps going on a one day tour to the nearby sights.

13th April
For the final time, I’ll be throwing my stuff in the back of a tour-bus/truck and heading off to see some ace sights and do some camping under the stars. This time it’s NOT Adventure Tours owned (unlike Wayward and Oz Experience), but a Darwin-to-Cairns tour courtesy of Desert Venturer. Not sure if that makes it better or not, but I need something to convince me that getting picked up at 5:45am is going to be worthwhile.

16th April
Arrive into Cairns!

Wooh.

Right, enough rambling, I’m off to label my newly uploaded photos.

Bye!

Pat

Howdy,

Well I’ve got about 2 hours before I head off on my Great Ocean Road tour and I’m looking forward to it. Why’m I in an internet cafe *again*? Well, it’s to upload all my “last two weeks of Melbourne” and “four days in the Grampians” photos.

There’s a fair few of them. Check them out in The Usual Place!

I’ll (ahem, Squage’ll) be doing a proper blog explaining what I’ve been doing in the past couple of weeks, including some of the un-Pat-like walking around rocky outcrops above large drops, socialising with various cool folks and talking to a 91 year old UFO enthusiast about the “very real danger” of an alien attack.

All that on the way – and the latest tune from the man who’s mum is urging fans to send him letters to show him how much he’s loved – next.

…

…

Help me.

Pat

P.S. Excitingly I’m now booked all the way to Cairns / April 16th. Wooh!