Some intricate Tetras packing. We're finally out of Noosa! After a few extra days at our friend Grant's place and a successful building/welding of a shed in his back yard, we've used our tetris skills to pack up Alby and get on the road. We all really wanted to do an initial camping trip and see some of the surrounding national park areas, so we headed to the Glass House Mountains - about an hour south of Noosa and north of Brisbane. The area is fairly flat, save for seven spectacular and very oddly shaped mountains all spread out across a small section of land. Each one is unique and has special significance for the local Aborigines. We arrived fairly late in the day so we just set up camp at a central camping and caravan park for the night. There was a full moon that evening, which was spectacular, and we were caught off guard by a partial lunar eclipse! Test #1 of our camping village = success. The views kept getting more spectacular as we climbed, as did the incline of the rock and the realization that the down climb might suck hard. The hike was ridiculously fun though - about as steep as you could go for rock climbing/scrambling without technical gear. The summit was actually rather disappointing in terms of views as it was fairly flat and covered in brush, but still incredibly satisfying and beautiful. The down climb wasn't as intense as we had predicted on the way up, but we did have to hustle to beat some rain clouds that threatened to leave us stranded on top. After all the climbing, scrambling, and crab-walking, our bodies weren't too happy in the days after, but it was well worth it.
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Woodford, QLD Before we left the Sunshine Coast a few weeks ago, the four of us were able to spend a day at Australia's Dreaming Festival, a celebration of indigenous culture. The experience was all-in-all quite spectacular, although we would've loved to have spent the full 4 days camping on site. We had initially been under the impression that the event focused on Aboriginal culture, but we soon found out it was a festival for all indigenous culture of the world - from the local Aboriginals to the Native Americans of Canada. We were lucky enough to wander into the film tent at just the right time, where we saw a fantastic film called Bran Nue Dae. It follows a young Aboriginal man from Broome in Western Australia as he tries to find his place in the world and of course, get the girl. The whole film is incredibly well done, has some fantastic music and some surprising cameos. Very funny, sweet, charming, and eye-opening and if you can find it in the states definitely see it!! The Dreaming played host to arts and crafts vendors, art galleries, workshops, theater, and song and dance performances. They had a carve-your-own didgeridoo tent and a didge playing workshop which were both, per tradition, men-only. Unfortunately Devin and Ben both missed the sign-up cutoff for the workshop. Emily and I did sign up for a hoop dancing workshop but soon realized when we walked up that all the other participants were no older than 12. Devin took a Poi class and found himself in a similar situation, but manned up and held his own amongst the kiddies. We were really blown away by all the performance artists we encountered. Oka, Digging Roots, and Rhombus were all awesome bands on the big stage and were a blast to dance the night away to. After we finished dinner (sampling from Jamaican and traditional Mayan themed tents), we wandered down the rows of shops and stopped at a tent selling African drums. Ben immediately jumped in and started playing with two other incredible drummers and all of a sudden he was a part of one of the best impromptu drum jams I've ever heard. Several other people joined in on the drumming and almost instantaneously there were 50+ people/hippies gathered dancing and appreciating the music. Truly an awesome thing to experience. Towards the end of the night we saw an awesome performance by a group from the Solomon Islands called The Narasirato Pan Pipers. Imagine a normal-sized pan pipe, then multiply all of its dimensions by about 10 and that's the size of the pan pipes these guys were playing. One of the most high-energy performances we've ever seen. Lastly, but certainly not least, we saw the incredible Constantina Bush & the Bushettes! Constantina, AKA Kamahi Djordon King, is an aboriginal drag queen performer hailing from the Gurindji tribe of the Northern Territory. Towering at about 6' 3" with the physique of a rugby player and a sequined cocktail dress put on a great show with her "Bushettes". I've never seen or heard better renditions of Beyonce's "Single Ladies," Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA," or Britney Spears' "Oops I did it Again," than by Constantina. She was a great comedian too and provided some good stories and laughs in between songs. Her microphone unfortunately kept cutting out, but she kept telling the sound guy that he wasn't allowed to complain since she could easily "bash him." Busy busy days here in Sunshine Beach these past few weeks. The four of us have been painstakingly focused on finding a used vehicle to buy for our upcoming trip round Oz. While we did consider creating an awesome used car buying montage, on the whole the process hasn't made for very exciting blog posts. However, the Sunshine Beach/Noosa area is incredibly beautiful, and in between car shopping we've taken many walks to the beaches and done a few treks through the National Park (which is spread out throughout the area). Wild Turkeys (Bush Turkeys) are everywhere. They're protected here but are largely hated by local residents because they've become so comfortable around people that they often wander into homes and through restaurant patios looking for handouts. We've also encountered plenty of kookaburras (yay!) and rainbow lorikeets which are beautiful but deafeningly loud. Funny thing about lorikeets - the berries they eat are fermented, so more often than not these birds are quite drunk when they're flying around and screeching at the top of their lungs. _Just a quick update to check in and get up to speed: As of June 9th we have a car! After much research and deliberation, the four of us have purchased a Nissan Terrano II 4x4 that we've christened "Alby" (pronounced Albie - pictures to come!). For those of you familiar with Flight of the Concords, you should already know that should we run into any coolant or oil leaks on the road these will of course turn into jellybeans, so not to worry friends and family, any mechanical issues will be delicious. In other news, we're finally out of our initial share house after some frustrating back and forth with the guy we were renting from who has some serious bi-polar passive aggressive issues. Wasn't anything serious or troubling but to be free from a bit of crazy is good. We still have a few things we need to take care of here in the Noosa area before we can be on our way, so while we reorganize, get a few final check-ups on the car, sell Devin's surfboard etc., we're staying with a mechanical engineering friend and helping him with a few projects in the interim. Then on to the Glass House Mountains for a bit of camping before the four of us part ways in July! More to come soon... |
Marielle & BenWe're two people in the midst of severe quarter-life crises who decided to leave good jobs in a bad economy to travel to the other side of the world because, well, why not? Archives
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