the dreaded C word!!

in the states the c word is reserved for extreme uses only and its not appreciated by most women.. but here in australia, and new zealand to a lesser extent, it can seemingly be used to describe any person, place, or thing including cars, friends, places, or spiders as i later found out..
while riding through a small beach town called merimbula on the east coast i stopped at a park to cook some cheap sausages i bought on one of the free to the public 'bar-b's'.. i met a couple of talkative older guys doing the same thing (cooking sausages).. one of whom, michael, had me laughing hysterically at his stories.. in any given sentence michael was likely to use the c word 4 or 5 times, with the f word coming in at a close 2nd.. his tales and jokes would range from extremely vulgar to downright offensive.. i enjoyed his company as i rarely meet someone as 'colorful' as he, and he was actually a very good story teller.. after a meal in the park he made some coffee and offered that i sleep on his couch in the next town up the coast.. i gratefully accepted and listened to his stories well into the night, sometimes repeating ones from earlier.. by 11 pm i was exhausted and as he was heading off to bed i noticed a mammal sized spider on the wall about 3ft from the couch i was about to sleep on..
'hey michael' i said 'what the hell is that?'
he replied in his thick aussie accent with something along the lines of:
'that c@#t!? that's a bloody f#$%ing baby, lives behind that c@#t there'
(he pointed to a painting on the opposite wall)
'and eats all the f@#$ing flies'
after a moment of reflection i said 'oh, ok then.. goodnight'
i took a photo and he turned out the lights on his way to bed.. i tried not to think about the fact that the largest spider id ever seen was crawling around just above my head in the dark..

warragul to eden, 450km in 4 days...

from warragul to eden which is a small town on the eastern coast is a 450km desolate stretch east.. it took me about 4 days to reach eden and along the way i barely spent any money at all.. im going to do a post soon about traveling cheaply so i wont really get into all the details, but involves lots of peanut butter, camping in the middle of the woods, pourage, and libraries..

when i pulled into a town called cann river one morning i was in dire need of a shower and the petrol station had a wonderful toilet with hot water... so i locked the door filled the sink with warm soapy eucalyptusy water (im very picky about my soap because i dont really trust white guys in lab coats and poor marketing).. i must not have heard a patron try to open the door while i was bathing in the sink because the man working at the gas station, probably in his 60s, opened the door with a key only to find me standing there completely naked washing myself with paper towels!! i think he yelled something along the lines of 'jesus f#@$ing christ mate!' and stormed out in an angry rage.. i quickly got dressed and apologized to the patron who had been waiting.. i thought about going inside and explaining what i was doing and that i hadnt had a shower in four days, but i thought better of it and got on my bike and left before any sort of law enforcement came.. definitely not the most embarrassing moment in my life, but it was up there.. although i did find it quite funny once i was about 5km up the road...

the dogs are back...

its been a while since ive had dog issues... probably since oklahoma or texas.. but coming thru some backwoods towns in southeastern australia i came a cross a few unleashed beasts.. not quite sure what it is about cyclists that dogs hate but as soon as you step off of your bike and walk up to them they will stop barking.. here is a short clip of some aussie muts:

rainy day to warragul..

had a rough day to start out with leaving melbourne only to have an amazingly relaxing good night when i got to warragul.. it was pouring rain all day and i was on country back roads a lot.. at about 2pm as i finished climbing a hill a man pulled over on the side of the road, flagged me down and introduced himself.. he offered me a ride to warragul to get me out of the rain. after i politely declined explaining that i only travel by horse, i set off on my bike riding along thinkng 'wow what a nice guy, but how in the hell did he know that i was going to warragul?'.. when i reached warragul that evening i knocked on the door of terry and magret, with whom id arranged to stay the night through warmshowers, and the man that answered the door was the same man that flagged me down hours earlier!! i felt stupid not realizing that it was him earlier, but id just finished climbing a large hill in the rain and my brain must not have had enough oxygen at the time!! i had a great time with terry and magret, they are currently in thailand and travel very frequently.. they had some amazingly funny stories including one about getting drunk with alcoholic monks at a monastery in scotland!! magret made a wonderful meal of chicken cacciatore and we had some great local cheeses with quince jam that terry made.. after a couple of bottles of wine and terry introducing me to my new favorite drink (whiskey and soda water with ice) we stayed up watching some old travel slideshows and talking.. really great people, meeting and spending time with people like this is the main reason i travel..

'camp anna' in st. kilda

before leaving melbourne i spent 3 days at 'camp anna'.. people who have done extensive low budget travel who have received large amounts of hospitality from people they dont know around the world are always quite keen to 'pay it forward'.. people who are not in these circles or communities often could never allow strangers in their home, and may be under the misconception that the world is full of horrible people, but if someone is backpacking or cycling around the world chances are they are gonna be nice, interesting people and a pleasure to spend time with.. anna is a professional traveler host, she is a member of both couchsurfers.org and warmshowers.org and she has her apartment completely set up for hosting low budget travelers.. everything is labeled, there is a huge homemade 'travelers' book, and she already had keys made for us.. she even had a food dehydrator which i utilized to dry some fruit.. at the time i was there a german girl, lisa also came to stay.. then her friend melissa, who was another german backpacker, also joined us a day later.. we had a great time with anna doing qigong in the mornings (a meditative yoga like exercise) and also a yogic sleep in the afternoons that was just amazing.. on the second night i made a huge meal consisting of risotto and chicken, and the next day lisa made some great cakes.. the german girls and i went out for a night on the town.. but since we are all poor travelers we bought beer at a bottle shop, then smuggled it into the club in my backpack and took turns filling up the 'beer glass' in the bathroom!! we had a blast

victoria markets, melbourne

wow... what a market, literally MILES of produce, meats, animals, fish, clothes, eateries, and anything else you could think of.. the vic market, as the main market for a city of 4 million ppl, is gigantic and fun.. the cook in me took over and i spent all day wondering around.. this is NOT the typical westernized ultra modern shopping venue one might expect to find in a very metropolitan city with strip malls, horrible marketing schemes, corporate hell, and soulless goods.. this was more like the tianges in guadalajara.. it was dirty, fast paced, crowded, affordable, with lots of merchants trying to outdo each other by yelling deals at the top of their lungs in thick aussie and foreign accents.. unfortunately i was caught up in all the mayhem and forgot to take pictures.. sorry, but this is all i got!

an afternoon with a chess board...

there are few things i enjoy more than playing chess.. although ive played since i was a child, in the last year or so ive really got into it and now have an array of favorite masters/grandmasters and follow the recent tournaments by getting online and printing out the pgns (game sequences) from my favorite players and slowly playing out the games when im alone.. i think i get as much pleasure out of this as a sports fan from a big game.. the level of intelligence needed to compete at even a regional chess level is something that i strongly admire.. i also notice that after a couple hours of clear focus on a game, my state of mind is much more suited for day to day problem solving.. so after a day of crazy city riding i found this little alleyway with tons of great graffiti and spent the afternoon with some fruit and a chess board made from cardboard!! life is good!

AUSTRALIA!!! getting to melbourne

i arrived in melbourne on the afternoon of the 7th and stayed the first night with fiona, a warm showers host, and her flat mates.. i loved the neighborhood, it was edgy and rundown reminding me of brooklyn a little with lots of characher and spicy feel.. melbourne is big, like chicago big, and its very sleek and urban.. at fiona's i met lots of awesome local blue collar people and had some great conversation.. after a meal, a beer, and some herbal refreshments, i fell asleep thinking:
should i
a. take a boat down to tasmania tomorrow and try to find work for a while?
b. should i ride 'up the guts' heading north through the desolate, inhospitable aussie deserts?
or c. should i follow the east coast up to brisbane stopping to work in sydney for a couple months?
ahhhh decisions, decisions!