Cathy and I went to see the new Meg Ryan movie tonight: In the Cut. It was a dark, depressing, and graphic movie. Both the gore and the sex scenes were more explicit than I would have imagined seeing in a Meg Ryan film. It was interesting, but I wouldn't call it a must-see.

Here's daily the USA journal entry:

Friday 14/05/93 Nashville 2:51 am

As we were about to board the bus at Memphis we could see a dark haired fellow with a beard putting his dog in the luggage bay of the bus, then I noticed that he was wearing a tee shirt with police written on it as he pulled a suitcase out from underneath the bus.

After we had boarded the bus, the policeman came aboard and asked if anyone on the bus was some Mexican woman. He then went through everybody's bags asking which luggage belonged to whom (except for us for some reason, we must look law abiding); and then he talked to one fellow, mentioning something about guns and mentioned that the dog could be used. He took the fellow out with his bag to the back of the bus, and I assume he checked the contents of the bag, and much to our surprise he was allowed back on the bus.

3:02 am

I almost stepped on three snakes today; in fact, I think that I did step on one. Being the first day in weeks that we have both had off together, we decided to go for a walk up Mount Cordeaux (1144m) at Cunningham's Gap. Cunningham's Gap is a pass through the Great Dividing Range, about 100km west of Brisbane. I've been there many times before, so we took off down a track without really looking at the signs properly. I did take a photo of the sign though, luckily. We bumped into a gorgeous little lizard on the track, and got a great photo of it (click here to see the photo). Some 20 minutes down the track, I realised that we seemed to be going too far south. I looked at the picture of the sign I had taken on the digital camera and realised that we were on completely the wrong path.

After getting ourselves onto the correct path, we started heading up Mount Cordeaux. About half way, a little black snake started wriggling just in front of my feet. I jumped back, switching my digital camera on at the same time. I got a photo, but not a very good one (click here to see the photo). We bumped into a young couple on the track a few minutes later. They told us that there was a brown snake on the track near the top of the mountain. This worried me a bit more than the black snake, as brown snakes are a lot more aggressive, so we kept our eyes peeled all the way up.

We didn't see any sign of the brown snake before we got to the top. We didn't stay for long, as Cathy had to get back to meet up with Marie. We only got a few metres along the stone steps leading down when I stepped straight over the (or 'a') brown snake's tail. The tail was sticking out from underneath one of the steps. I stopped to take a photo (click here to see the photo), of course, not thinking at first that the snake was now between Cathy and I, and that on one side of us was a stone wall and the other was a drop-off. Cathy had no way of getting to me other than to jump over the snake. There was little chance that it could have attacked her, as it was head-first under the stone step, but she was still worried. She moved forward a little and saw it. This scared her a bit more. She said aloud to herself, "Be brave; be brave", took a couple of steps run-up, and jumped over the top of the snake and down a two or three steps. We had 'snake fever' for some time after this, but then relaxed our guard as we got closer to the bottom of the mountain.

We were deep in conversation when another little black snake (maybe half a metre long) started wriggling crazily between my feet. It seems unlikely that I didn't step on it, but I didn't feel it under foot. I jumped ahead of it on the track (clicking the cover of the camera open at the same time), once again inadvertently placing a snake between Cathy and I. When I turned around, I couldn't see it. The track was covered in thick leaves the snake could easily have been under. I got a stick and started pushing it through the leaves. We couldn't find the snake, so Cathy once again did a running jump over where it had been. All the photos we took today are available from the PICTURE ALBUMS page.

The rest of the walk down was relatively uneventful, and the drive home was too (except for Cathy buying a bloody awful mango at a fruit shop in Aratula). I ended up falling asleep for a few minutes in the car home as I was tired from the night before.

Eileen, the girl we met at trampolining and gymnastics, and her friend Katrin from Germany, had us over for dinner Friday night. We had a great time, and Cathy got a chance to play her skydiving video. I think that Eileen is very keen now to go skydiving herself.

Well now back in time a bit; here is the next USA journal entry:

Thursday 13/05/93 Memphis Greyhound bus depot. 4:50 am

The bus we just caught from Jackson was the most uncomfortable by far. The seats wouldn't go back much, and they were very close together. The bus we caught before that was standing room only and we had to sit on the floor in the isle. Luckily that was only a forty minute ride. The last one to Memphis was four hours and a very uncomfortable four hours too.

In Vicksburg on Tuesday, after my last entry, we finally got our bags at 8:30 am and began to walk towards the town, which was quite a distance with the heavy packs.

After booking into a hotel and having a swim in the pool, we headed off to the Vicksburg Battlefield Park (click here for photo), which is the site of one of the last battles of the American Civil War. The park took us three hours to walk around, and that was at a fast pace; and we skipped one road. Most people drive around it. The park has metal markers that resemble preacher pews, and small road signs that show where the trenches were and where certain attacks reached. They said things like, "This is the furthest point reached by Johnny Rebs Cavalry Battalion on May 22nd". The blue markers were for Union troops and red markers for Confederates. There were literally thousands of these markers not only in the park but also through the town, and it was interesting to see the perspectives of the soldiers from both sides.

The trenches in a lot of cases still exist, and in the places where canons were positioned canons now sit. There are probably a couple of hundred of these scattered around, some in batteries of up to eight and some by themselves. It was a creepy feeling to stand in the trenches and see the canons of the other side pointing at you and realizing how close they were, in some cases a hundred meters or less. These canon have not been plugged with cement, so they could still be used. The barrels and fuse holes are still clear.

The area is very hilly, and through the hills are stone markers resembling headstones, some small (one meter by one meter) flat to the ground and others graduating to giant tower type pillars. There are also busts of commanders scattered around these. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of these throughout the park and the town.

One house still stood in the middle of the park that had been used during the battle. It was still in good condition but closed up. It was creepy to wander around and look through the windows as there was no one else around and a hive of bees nearby provided an interesting horror movie type backing hum.

Not far from the house was a monument type building containing the names of the men in the battle. This building was a dome at the top of high stone steps, and it provided some eerie echoes; maybe because of the round hole in the roof that shines light on a certain area at a certain time of year.

5:46 am.

Thursday 13/05/93 6:47 pm

From the bus depot, we explored this part of Memphis and made our way to the tourist information in Beal Street, a very famous street here apparently. We ended up taking an amphibious vehicle ride, after we saw the ducks come down to the fountain in the foyer of a hotel in town. Heaps of people line up at the elevator as one man from the hotel goes to the roof were the ducks are kept and brings them down on the elevator, and out across an especially rolled out carpet. Everyone expects to see lots of ducks, but in the end only four ducks waddle down to fanfare music.

On the WWII amphibious vehicle we headed out to Mud Island. While we were on the island we saw the original Memphis Belle bomber. We then drove down into the river and saw some paddle steamers. After we drove out of the river we went past the Great American Pyramid then past the place where slaves used to be sold. We saw the place from where the gunman shot at Martin Luther King, and then to the hotel where King was shot (click here for photo). The whole hotel is now a civil rights museum and a wreath stands where he was shot.

After this trip, we caught a local bus out to Graceland and the experience moved me so much I was inspired to write a song about it.

GRACELAND.
(sung to the tune of Waltzing Matilda)
By David Manning

We went to Graceland,
What a disgrace man,
Under the shade of a big money tree.

They gather and weep,
As they pray to the monument,
Then they all say,
He's alive you'll see.

Graceland was like a theme park of Elvis. They charge money to see everything; for example: $8.00 to see the house, $5.00 to see the cars, $3.00 for the movie and I don't know how much for the planes and the 'Walk in his shoes for an hour' ride.

There was one guy who was dressed like Elvis walking down the street. He had blond hair greased back, big gold rimmed sun glasses, his shirt open to the navel showing a big gaudy necklace. At one stage I'm sure he was crying on his girlfriend's shoulder over Elvis being dead. The thing is, he wouldn't have been born before Elvis died.

The whole place is absolutely disgusting. The stone wall in front of the house was covered in graffiti everything from "I have waited for 13 years to come here, I love you Elvis" to "Elvis is alive and living with David at Waco, leave them alone" and even one "Elvis is dead!" surrounded by abuse and profanities directed towards the person who wrote this. Personally, I think that this 'circus' is actually degrading to the memory of a talented man.

I almost forgot, we visited a police museum, which was very interesting.

Lunch was an adventure to say the least. We bought some bread from a bakery in the Graceland area, and as we sat to eat it we saw a man in a white apron making foul coughing noises carrying some garbage bags. He was spitting and generally being gross as he walked in our general direction; then without even losing step he spewed all over the ground, then kept walking as if he had simply spat on the ground. His apron was splashed in vomit.

Luckily (maybe), I had eaten all I had really wanted by then. But he came back from another direction and headed for the bakery. We felt sorry for the people in there if they had to serve him if he went inside. For a moment we were relieved as he walked past, then, horror of horrors, the most repulsive thing imaginable happened. Our spew covered hero walked straight into the service entrance! He worked there, in the actual bakery!

Aa aah!

I think I would rather have eaten raw liver at a morgue than what happened today. Even with my brain dead stomach, that was almost too much. But I feel alright now - well so far.

7:45 pm.

I got my final assignment back for my degree today. I couldn't be happier about the mark. It really feel like I have some closure now.

Cathy has a job interview tomorrow, and is busily doing the final preparations as I'm writing this. Because she was so busy preparing, she didn't get to go to gymnastics tonight. I went, though, and picked up Eileen and her friend on the way. I'm feeling increasingly comfortable with my skills, and more confident. It will be interesting how I feel in a few months.

Here's the next USA journal entry (I considered omitting a large portion of this entry, as it is not particularly flattering to Americans, but I thought that I would let it stand as my opinion at the time):

Tuesday 11/05/93 Vicksburg 4:15 am

OK , we're at Vicksburg. The bus depot is closed until 8:30 am, and (hopefully) our bags are locked inside. We were told by the woman in New Orleans that it would be open. So we are sitting in a service station waiting for the sun to come up so we can have a look around.

The black population of New Orleans seems in general to have a very deep dislike, maybe even hate, of the whites. They are very short with you for no reason at all, no matter how polite you are with them. I have noticed the higher the position held in the workforce the more friendly they are towards us. Maybe they feel that whites look down on them when they are in service industries. I have found, in general, the main three racial groups here have certain behaviour patterns towards us. The Hispanics don't appear to want anything to do with us, and seem to avoid even looking at us. The whites are similar to Anglo-Australians, but maybe a bit more vocal; although we saw some Australians at the Grand Canyon and we could hear them for miles off.

Despite the observations I've mentioned above, there are quite a few mixed relationships, and maybe this will be the answer to some of the racial problems in America. I think that there is too much racial grouping, blacks with blacks, whites with whites, Mexicans with Mexicans, Italians with Italians etc., and maybe if the races inter-marry enough then people may just seen as be people.

It seems that America probably has the world's greatest supply of human fat tissue. Contrary to what you see on TV, a lot of people here don't look very healthy. Probably the many rows of confectionery in the supermarkets isn't helping.

Monique has fallen asleep on the table in front of me. It's amazing how quickly you get used too falling asleep anywhere. I have started to look forward to bus and plane rides as they are a good chance to have a sleep. On the four-hour bus ride from New Orleans to Jackson we were both asleep before we were out of the bus depot, and the next thing we knew we were in Jackson. Monique wears an eye mask to keep the headlights out and I pull my hat over my eyes; this seems to make a lot of difference to the quality of sleep you get.

I'll finally get back to Gordon and Lisa's wedding.

After trying on the suits we found all three were adjusted wrong, so we had to race around to my mum's place so she could adjust them. We ended up with a couple of hours to spare before the wedding. At least we were running early, not late.

As time got closer to the wedding Gordon remained calm as usual but Damien, the best man, managed to get so nervous he actually threw up and he managed to get hair mousse on his suit.
I wont spend too much time on the actual wedding, as it was very much like any other wedding, except to say that Monique looked by far the most beautiful of the girls, and that's not just me being biased.

The taking of the photos was the only time Lisa had a little tantrum about her new in-laws, but that was not too bad.

The reception went well, except that Damien, after all his hours of practicing the speech, managed to finish his speech by calling Lisa Louise, which is Lisa's daughter. At least he didn't call her Cheryl-Lee, which is Gordon's ex-wife.

We drove Gordon and Lisa to the motel in Monique's car after the wedding and said good bye to them there.

We drove to Monique's place, said goodbye to Ann-Marie, Monique's flatmate, and then drove to Toowoomba. And the rest is history (well ... already mentioned in the journal!).

5:22 am.

David: Cathy and I went with some friends to a pre-release screening of 'Love Actually' tonight. Rita somehow managed to get a heap of free tickets, so there were about ten of us who got to see the movie early. The normal release date is 26 December I think. The movie was great; I think that it will be the feel-good movie of the year. It was also very funny, and somewhat thought provoking.

At work, we finished the two projects that we have been working on over the last few weeks. We got taken out to lunch to celebrate.

Here it the next entry in the USA journal:

Monday 10/05/93 New Orleans Airport. New Orleans time 3:05 am

It's Monique's turn to sleep on these airport chairs. We are taking 1-hour shifts at sleeping. At first getting to sleep was hard, but once you get to sleep you sure as hell don't want to wake up. There is a constant array of jazz songs being played fairly loud over the PA system, and it's also pretty hot in here. At least the songs never seem to repeat.

There are others staying in this room with its high arched ceilings. There are three young black men, an older black man, a couple a bit older than us, a heavy elderly woman in a pink tee shirt, a long haired backpacker who has just wandered away past some cleaning equipment (I suspect he has found himself a little warren of some kind over there), and finally there is us sitting near two closed bars, one with one armed bandits playing circus music occasionally.

We have a twenty four hour snack bar, and an array of inconspicuous security guards and cleaners; although even the cleaners seem to have given up at this hour.

On one end of the very large room is a sign welcoming us to New Orleans, with five giant heads looking over it. From right to left we have a black and white minstrel, a jester, a massive ugly lizard, a maid Marion look alike, and what looks like a bust of a red headed Jesus Christ.

We also have a array of closed shops selling goods, ranging from packaged sea food to voodoo goods, and this is just the airport lobby.

There is a song playing now called 'How come my dog don't bark when you come around', where he is singing about shooting his dog, mutilating and burning his wife, and cutting up this fellow with a double edged razor because he thinks this bloke is playing around with his wife. Wholesome family listening for an airport, and I thought punk rock was bad!

3:39 am,

Monday 10/05/93 New Orleans 5:01 pm

We explored the French Quarter of New Orleans today, and it was definitely something different. It looked like a cross between a European town and one from South America.

Most of the shops in this area seemed to sell tee shirts or mardigras masks. Other than this there is an array of bars and strip joints full with tourists. One bar we went into was so old we thought it might fall down on us.

The river was muddy and we saw a couple of paddle steamers, one of which let its horn off near us as it left. It was so loud the dock shook and the echo rang back from the city.

One old woman who was on the median strip in the middle of the road saying, "Help me! Somebody Help me!" I saw that her glasses were cracked and held together by a band-aid, so I assumed she couldn't see properly and couldn't make it across the road, so I offered to help her. She only said "No I need money for food." As I walked past she started again with "Help me! Somebody help me!"
Even as I was writing this, I had one fellow come up to me asking for thirty-five cents. New Orleans is not as bad as San Francisco or LA, and it is far more interesting, but sirens here are still pretty common.

We checked our bags at Greyhound this morning, and it seems they have been sent ahead of us. I just hope they're in Vicksburg when we get there.

I rang mum from the airport last night; all seems well at home.

We went through one shop in the French Quarter devoted to Voodoo. Some of the stuff in there was interesting, but most of it was just tourist's souvenir crap. There was no filming or photography allowed in that store, and you weren't supposed to touch some of the alters; so what's the first thing Monique does, touches one! When I told her she wasn't supposed to touch, it she rubs her hand on me and says "It's on you now". Really great friend eh, dumps a voodoo curse on me.

5:32 pm.

David:
Eileen, Cathy and I went down the Gold Coast today. We had an excellent time, and I really enjoyed having a full day without needing to think about work. We started by going bodyboarding at Burleigh Heads. Eileen had never been bodyboarding before, and did very well for her first time. What's more, she had never been to the Gold Coast before; so after our surf, we showed her around. We also introduced her to the delights of one of our favourite gelato bars! When we got back, the three of us headed off to trampolining.

Tonight was a good night for me at trampolining. I managed to get my first full summersault on the tramp (I've done them on the mini-tramp before), and also learned back-drop back summersaults. It felt good to develop two completely new skills.

In the trip to the USA journal, we have just returned to Denver and then flew to New Orleans:

Sunday 09/05/93 Denver Airport 4:00 pm

We left the hostel this morning and walked to the dam above Silverthorne; it is frozen. We walked around the edge a bit and tossed some rocks on the ice. I stood on the ice in a shallow bit while Monique took a photo. The ice began to make creaking and cracking noises, so I got off in a hurry. If I'd gone through I would only have gone to my knees but it would have been freezing.

We met some older women on the bus to Denver and it was interesting to hear there ideas on Australia.

There where some street stalls in Denver for Mothers Day with some Indian and Mexican dancing.


Photo: Indians dancing

The houses in the suburbs on Denver are similar to the ones in Australia.

4:12 pm.

Sunday 09/05/93 On the plane to New Orleans. 7:28 pm

We are flying at 37,000 feet, and when you look at the horizon you can actually see the curve of the planet. It's easier now to imagine the size of the Earth.

We will get into New Orleans at 10:20 pm so we'll probably spend the night at the airport.

The plane hit a lot of turbulence as we took off. Monique was nervous so I teased her of course!

7:36 pm.

David:
I got a message through the website from an old friend today, Rick, letting me know that he wouldn't mind having his photo placed on my Friends page. Rick and I used to live together a few (well more than a few) years ago. I set a page up for him and his wife Linda (click here to see it).

Here's the next episode of the USA trip:

Saturday 08/05/93 6:09 pm

We tried climbing Mount Ptarmigan today, only to be stopped by some deep snow on the first ridge. We ended up having to stay there for a while when some heavy snow came in with strong winds.

From the top of the ridge we could see the dam that overlooks the town. It was completely frozen and covered in snow.

There are a lot of chipmunks around here and Monique wants to take one home!

David:
Cathy has decided that she might start making some entries into this blog (hence the change of the blog's name), so I'll start posting using blue font and placing my name in front of my entries. Also, I've been told that it is a bit confusing that there are two entry dates when I post the journal entries from my trip, so I will use block indents for all my trip journal entries.

Speaking of trip journal entries, here's the next USA trip entry:

Friday 07/05/93 Silverthorne Colorado. 5:53 pm

We stayed at a fairly dingy hotel last night after an afternoon exploring Denver. Denver is about the nicest city so far, with some interesting shops, and far less intimidating than San Francisco or Los Angeles, even better than the towns in Arizona.

We caught a Greyhound to Silverthorne at 8:05 am, and in very little time we could see snow covered mountains approaching. Along the way we saw a small herd of buffalo grazing in a paddock only about a hundred meters away from the bus.

As the bus worked its was through the mountains the snow was coming further and further down the mountains. At one stage we saw a crashed semi-trailer on the other side of the road. It was pretty badly wrecked.

As we got closer to Silverthorne, it started to snow a little and we could see ski slopes, and one actually had people skiing on it.

Silverthorne is a very small town of mainly rustic looking timber buildings and houses that seems to cater mainly for tourists (e.g., skiers).

The Greyhound depot just happened to be right in front of the youth hostel, which is a new three story English looking building which is nice and friendly staff, one of whom has been to Toowoomba. We are surrounded by mountains here, some completely snow covered and we are right next to a beautiful stream.

After booking in we decided to climb to the snow. As we walked around there it started to snow. We passed a bridge on the way to the mountain and we could see large trout swimming amongst the rocks below.

The snow turned to a blizzard as we neared the first hill. We took a compass bearing of the town and began to make our way uphill, which was very steep. Our ponchos and hat covers were absolutely covered in snow and the town below us was cover as well. The wind was extremely strong, blowing snow into our faces and eyes. We made it about half way to a bunch of pine trees when we encountered deep snow coming to just above my knees. When we stopped and had some lunch, the snow had abated by then and we could see the town more clearly.

We found a steep slope on the way down so I lay on my back on the poncho and slid to the bottom. I made my way back to the top and after I went down again Monique had a go. I tried it four times and Monique twice as the climb back up was very tiring.

We got back to town as the snow had started melting in the yards of houses, and we realized that you could see our slide tracks from anywhere in town.

We took a stroll along the river and watched some fly fishermen for a while.

As I wrote this it has been snowing a little outside but it seems to have stopped now.

6:34 pm.

As I mentioned in the last entry, Rob, Cathy and I went to the School of Psychology's end-of-year dinner last night. It was held a one of the local golf clubs, and about 60 people went. Unfortunately, many of the people that Cathy and I studied with were not there, like Karen and the Mels. Jan, Dragica, Nicole, Helen, Rhonda, Mos, Matt, and some of the staff were there though. Apparently what killed the numbers off was that a postgraduate end-of-year celebration was being held at the same time. It was good to see that the Head of School turned up to this function, and he gave a somewhat amusing speech. We ended up having a reasonably late night, although it didn't feel like it. Overall, the night was a little slow, especially compared to some of the Christmas and end-of-year functions that we've had in the past.

We went out for lunch today with Cathy's parents, uncle and grandmother today, to celebrate her father's birthday. We bought him a webcam, but the drivers were missing; so we will have to chase them up. I was spoiled too, as they gave me a work dairy to celebrate me finishing uni, and Cathy gave me a beautiful set of engraved pens.

We managed to get an action photo of our little girl ...


Photo: Chloe flying

Now on to the next entry of the USA trip journal:

Thursday 06/05/93 Los Angeles Airport. 3:48 am

We arrived at LA's Greyhound depot at 2:20 am. We caught a taxi to the airport, as we were told it was cheaper than the shuttle bus (which cost $15.00 each).

We approached one of the drivers outside the depot and asked how much it cost to get to the airport. "Thirty dollars" he said, and I told him we only had $28.00.

He said that it should cost less than that. Well after a reasonably hectic ride through LA, which may have been a little scenic, we arrived at the airport with over $30.00 on the clock. A minor altercation followed, ending with him getting his $28.00 but no more. In a way I was surprised that he didn't put up more opposition, you'd think a taxi driver in LA would have to put up with that sort of thing everyday. Maybe he just knew he was in the wrong.

The fellow we met yesterday in the McDonalds in Kingman asked me if he could take a photo of us to show his wife . He seemed like a fairly nice person once you got him off the subject of business of religion.

The airport is quiet with only us and two Japanese women in this area. One of the women, who would be in her fifties of sixties, is doing some stretching and she obviously does some form of martial arts, probably Tai Chi.

It's a shame we couldn't explore the Grand Canyon more. You could spend years and years exploring that place.

LA's Greyhound terminal is an interesting place many different people, and most look down and out.

Monique is reading a copy of 'Dances with Wolves' that we bought in this really nice little second hand book store in Flagstaff, and she found a note in it saying "CALL MY MOM AND ASK FOR LEAH AND TELL HER YOU ASKED FOR ME (Editing note 22/11/03: phone number ommitted)". Obviously some girl named Leah had put that in the book before she sold it.

Just for interest sake I'll write down the business card of the fellow we met in Kingman, as we might send him a postcard from Australia if I get around to it; he'd get a kick out of it I think.

(Editing note 22/11/03: address omitted)

As you can probably tell, it's pretty boring here at the airport, otherwise I wouldn't bother writing all that card down. Oh well, if you're ever in the U.S.A and need an alarm you'll know who to call.
That's all that I can think of to write at the moment. I guess I'll just have to find something else to do for the next four hours until our plane leaves.

4:34 am.

We went to the psychology end-of-year dinner last night with Rob (the guy who got Cathy and I together). I will write more about it tonight, as we have to go out now to get Cathy's father a birthday present.

Cathy just found out that she got 95.8% for her Counselling assignment.

Here's the next USA journal entry:

Wednesday 05/05/93 3:24 pm

We are sitting in a McDonalds near the Greyhound bus depot at Kingman. We just finished talking to a guy who was trying to get us started on an Amway type of business. We had an interesting talk with him for about an hour and a half about different things. We also met a fellow in Kmart who is an American Indian. His surname is Redfeather; I didn't catch his first name. He is one of the few Indians I've seen so far who does not appear destitute. The Indians here seem to be pretty much similar to the Australian Aborigines in their situation. Most don't seem to be handling the invasion of white society very well. I had one Indian in Flagstaff ask me for money then when I refused he followed me back to the laundromat where Monique was watching the washing. When I stopped at the door of the laundromat I turned and smiled at him and he just kept walking. I saw him a couple of times after that but I think he had given me up as a target. I wouldn't have left Monique at the laundromat if it hadn't seemed safe because of the crowd, even in these small towns it's not safe to be alone I don't think.

We had to leave our hotel at 11:00 am and have been trying to fill in time until 6:00 pm when our bus leaves for Los Angeles.

We are in Mojave County here, so I suppose that the surrounding dessert is the Mojave Dessert. There are lots of mountains and rocky outcrops around us covered in a short tough grass. The only trees are in the town, and have been planted by man, and even these are few.

We walked quite a distance this morning to get to the main town, as the area we are in is classed as a suburb. The town of Kingman is almost a ghost town, with a couple of half fallen down pubs and shops. The main industry here seems to be the courthouse, bail bond and the small local jail. There are a lot of police and we saw one prisoner being transported to jail.

3:55pm.

Sara and I sent one of the projects we have been working on to the industry partner today. We got feedback from the uni's Research Office this morning, and fortunately we didn't need to make many changes.

Cathy also had a productive day: she finished her final exam for the semester, which is also the final exam for the psychology part of her degree. She feels confident about the exam. She is doing a psychology/criminology double degree. Now she only has two criminology subjects to go until she has finished both degrees.

We had quite an exhausting night at gymnastics. I think that the instructor, Vadam, was deliberately trying to tire us out.

And now for the next segment of the trip to USA journal ...

Tuesday 04/05/93 Kingman , Arizona. 1:20 pm

We are in a town in the desert: Kingman is surrounded by rocky mountains and low shrub desert. Even with the rough surroundings, this seems about the nicest town we've been through in the US so far.

As we where looking around this morning, we crossed a railway line and found one poor rabbit that didn't quite make it over the railway line. Then we saw a live one bolt along the dust dirt road. The weather is dry and windy.

When we where driving back from the Grand Canyon, one of the other people in the van was an Australian girl from Perth who is touring around nursing.

We went to Kmart here, and would you believe that some of the shopping trolleys have a computer screen on them to tell you where an item is.

There are lots of really massive camper van trucks that tow a car or ute behind so that the people can park the van and drive around in the car.

There were a lot of Indians in Flagstaff, and a lot of them seem fairly poor. Flagstaff is of similar size to Warwick in Australia, and we had people there asking us for money in the street. These people must be just plain lazy I'd say because when we pulled in to Kingman a bloke said to us that if we want work just to go in a curtain direction; we've also seen other signs for work too, so there's work around and a lot of these people are young and healthy and still begging for change.

Would you believe they sell handguns in grocery stores here!

1:42 pm.

Another long day today (left home at 7:30am and got home about 8:00pm), but it was broken up by an interesting meeting in the city. We are working with a large company to design a long-term research project. Today was the first time that I got to meet the industry partners, and I enjoyed the whole experience.

Cathy is still studying. She is starting to worry about her exam tomorrow. I don't blame her really. It is time-pressured, and I hate time-pressured exams. I believe that exams should be about knowledge and intellectual ability, not how fast you can write! I'm sure that she will do fine though ... she always does well.

Here's the next USA trip journal entry. We reached the Grand Canyon.

Sunday 02/05/93 Grand Canyon

We made the trip out from Flagstaff yesterday morning by van which cost us $25.00 plus $4.00 to get into the park. After checking our big packs into one of the hotels, renting a tent ($15.00), and finding a campsite ($2.00), we started to make our way down the Bright Angel Trail, down into the canyon to Indian Garden Campground. We left at about 1 pm, and decided to turn back at 4 pm, which was lucky because Monique barely made it to the campsite as it was!


Picture: The Grand Canyon

The way up was very steep, and about three quarters of the way up she got blisters on her feet, so she had to take off her shoes. It was lucky that the soil an the path has been pounded to fine powder by the millions of people that have walked on it (five million people visit the park a year), so it was soft on her feet, but after a while her feet got cold so she had to wear her socks.

We walked with me in front and her behind, both holding either end of a stick so that I could tow her. So, as you can imagine, by the time we reached the top we were both pretty exhausted, and then we had a two mile walk to the campsite.

Monique was so exhausted that as I was setting up the tent she asked me if I could help her sit down, so I had to lower her down by the shoulders. We finally got everything set up and we went to bed about 8:00 pm exhausted, and slept until 7:30 this morning.

The Grand Canyon itself is massive with levels of different colours all the way down. There were heaps of really tame squirrels and a mountain goat hanging around everyone on one section of the trail.

8:49 am.

Sunday 02/05/93 10:46 am

We are sitting on a chair near the edge of the canyon having Corn Flakes for breakfast. A squirrel came up to us and took a Corn Flake from my hand and Monique patted it for a second.

The canyon looks even more spectacular this morning than it did yesterday. The temperature got down to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (about - 1 degree Celsius) last night but I think it's going to be very hot today.

10:52 am.

Sunday 02/05/93 6:05 pm

We are at the Grand Canyon visitors centre waiting for our van back to Flagstaff. Monique is had it; she can hardly walk or even balance. We had to carry our big packs about two and a half miles from where we left them and she could hardly walk even before we first picked them up.

We walked along the canyon rim today, and it was even more majestic from the East rim than from here as we could see down the canyon rather than just across.

We visited the graveyard here, and saw the graves of some of the pioneers. I also took a photo of a monument to the people who died in a plane crash in the 1950's.


Picture: The monument to the plane crash victims

Apparently a woman fell off the edge of the canyon as she was walking backward, just as someone was going to take a photo of her. This happened about two weeks ago and they say that they haven't found the body yet.

6:18 pm.

Sunday 02/05/93 Flagstaff Arizona 10:17 pm

It was sad to leave the Grand Canyon, to think we might not see it again; it leaves that much of an impression on you.

The fellow that drove us out to the canyon and back was a really nice guy, who seemed to live for the Canyon and has worked at or around the canyon for years.

We have found a good hotel for $17.00 a night.

10:24 pm.

I've finished marking exam papers! My eyes are actually burning from trying to interpret the scrawl that some people's handwriting turns into when they are under pressure.

Here's the next USA journal entry:

Friday 30/04/93 Los Angeles California 9:20 am

We are on a coach from LA to Flagstaff. Last night we took a coach from San Francisco to LA, arriving at 6:30 am; an eight hour trip.

We have just pulled into Pasadena Bus depot. The smog is still very bad, like in LA. The smog here looks like the end of the world. I don't know how anything lives here, it's so hard to breath and the sun is a faint glow in the sky. San Francisco is clear compared to LA.

I managed about five hours sleep last night but I don't think Monique got much. We don't get into Flagstaff till 9:05 pm a long, long trip.

There are lots of American-Mexicans in LA as it is a transit point for Mexico. Most signs and announcements are made in both English and Spanish. I think Spanish is more popular.

We are on a ten lane freeway at the moment, five lanes in either direction.

There are mountains fairly close on my left side maybe two kilometres, and even this far out of LA they are faded into grey shadow by the smog. As we drove into the LA area this morning we could see the exact point where the smog started.

Monique is getting very tired and worried that we haven't been able to ring home, we'll try again in Flagstaff.

9:41 am.

Friday 30/04/93 10:17 am

We just saw a mountain to our left through the smog that had snow on the top (editing note 18 November 2003: I'm pretty sure this was the first time I'd seen snow on a mountain).
We are still in an industrial area heading for Riverside and still lots and lots of smog. Lots of palm trees line the eight lane freeway.

10:24 am.

Friday 30/04/93 11:51 am

Heading for Barstow, and the smog has finally cleared all of a sudden, and we have a very close view of snow covered mountains and rocky hills covered in low shrubs and pines up higher.

11:54 am

What a long day! I left to catch the bus for work at 7:15 this morning (I haven't been driving my car lately; it is easier to catch the bus). I worked on a grant project from 8am until 10:30am, and then marked exam papers until 4:30pm. After that, I went back to working on the grant stuff until 6pm. Once I'd finished work, I walked to the gym (about half an hours walk), trained until 7:30pm, and then walked home through the forest. I got back here about an hour later.

Cathy had a pretty exhausting day today too. She had an exam for her third-year Organisational and Community Change course. She is in her study room now preparing for another exam on Thursday: Abnormal Psychology.

Here are the next entries in my USA trip journal:

Thursday 29/04/93 12:02 pm

We are sitting at a picnic table in Golden Gate Park and we are in the process of walking to the zoo. Because we are carrying our big backpacks, Monique's feet have whimped out; and even though I carried her bag for a while, she still needed to rest. She is laying on the bench beside me as I'm sitting on the table. From here, as I look around, I can see two squirrels looking for food and playing. There are also ducks and geese.

We visited the Mission Dalores, built in 1776. We got a couple of photos of the mission. It had been vandalized the night before and police and newsmen were coming.


Picture: Mission Dalores

12:13 pm.

Thursday 29/04/93 2:00 pm

We made it to the San Francisco zoo after a long walk and a bus trip through the suburbs of joining houses that look vaguely Mediterranean in style. All the animals here are kept in fairly small areas. The kangaroos are really ratty looking.

Cathy and I just got back from having some delicious Nados chicken, followed by chocolate ice cream. After watching 'Willy Wonka' on TV last night, we just had to have something with chocolate in it!

Speaking of 'Wonka', check out this site ... http://www.wonka.com

I checked out a friend's blog today. She works on a computer just behind me. I've decided to make a section on the right of this blog for friends' blogs, so let me know if you would like yours included.

Here is the next entry for my USA trip journal:

Wednesday 28/04/93 4:54 pm

We left our hotel at 8:00 am and went to the youth hostel, which costs $15.00 a night. We then went looking for the Greyhound Bus Terminal which took some finding as they had moved.

We then took a ferry over to Sausalito on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. There we saw some sea lions in the water on the way across, and we got a good view of the Gold Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.


Picture: Alcatraz

Lots of smog.

Lots of beggars.

We had one guy come up and try to sell us tram tickets, and explain the tram system, then asked for a tip or some loose change. It seems that so many people have a scam.

Sausalito was nice, it's more of a resort area and very pretty. But even in Sausalito there are derelicts in the parks. We walked down to the San Francisco Bay Model, which was a long walk but there was quite nice (free) little museum about the San Francisco Bay with model of the bay and delta that covers a couple of acres.

5:14 pm.

I only realised today how long it has been since I've had a day off work. I've been spending almost as much time at the office as I have been spending at home. I'm planning to take next weekend completely off. The worst thing is that I hadn't really noticed! I'll have to watch that doesn't become a habit.

I've been gradually re-vamping my website as a bit of relaxation before I go to bed at night. I've been doing one or two pages a day. Tonight I put up some photos from a trip out to the West of Queensland. The photos are available both through the 'West QLD' and here.

Tuesday 27/04/93 San Francisco time. San Francisco

On the flight over from Hawaii we passed over an aircraft carrier. I took a photo but it may be too far away (editing note 15 November 2003: you can just seen the ship in the photo, so I won't bother posting it here).

Money seems to be going OK, and we are managing to get by very cheaply on groceries. We haven't had a meal in a restaurant yet.

We are in our hotel room, on the eleventh floor, in the middle of San Francisco, and the sirens are in the distance quite often. You'd be stupid to go out after dark (editing note 15 November 2003: It probably wasn't that bad; chances are I just wasn't used to big cities at that stage). San Francisco itself is nice on the outskirts, and the main city is very similar to Sydney in feel. The people seem to be more friendly in general than the Hawaiians, but that wouldn't be hard. There are a lot of people begging and hawking newspapers (that they probably made themselves) in the street. One fellow yelled to me as we walked pass "I need your money!"

So I yelled back "So do I."

We tried to ring Australia tonight but the phones wouldn't dial there.

Here come a heap more sirens!

10:36 pm.

Tuesday 27/04/93 11:11 pm

We just had a look around outside with our binoculars when we spotted a pair of prostitutes working a corner two blocks up. We watched for about twenty minutes as they approached cars and men passing by on the street. Only one car pulled up, but he only seemed to be window shopping. They would be joined by other girls every so often.

11:15 pm.

I've just posted some additional photos of a trip I did to Cairns a few years ago. There are some underwater pictures of scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, some great snaps of the Daintree National Park, and a couple of actions shots of white water rafting the Tully River. Click here to have a look.

The second-year assignments we were marking were handed back today. Overall, the marks were very low, and I think that it is partly the system's fault. Yeah, sure, some of the students obviously put very little effort into the assignments. Others, though, had tried but still didn't grasp the main idea of what needed to be done. The assignment required them to examine the results of tests done in class (e.g., tests of personality, personal ethics, etc.), relate the findings to research and theory, and then state what conclusions could be made from this. I think that part of the problem was that they were permitted to write in first-person, and they felt that this meant that the academic requirements of the assignment were less. Many of the assignments were just subjective reflections, a bit like this blog ;-). I think that the university needs to put more resources into teaching basic academic literacy skills before throwing students headlong into writing academic papers.

Speaking of subjective reflections, and subjective perceptions, below are my perceptions of Hawaii in April 1994. Re-reading the journal from this trip, I think that travelling to the USA was a huge culture-shock for me at the time. I was probably expecting the USA to be full of beautiful, friendly people; but I found that the real USA was a lot rougher around the edges.

Monday 26/04/93 9:29 pm

We are watching a show on TV about Hawaii, and what a load of crap it is too. Richard Chamberlain is going on about it, saying the people are so friendly and the island is so beautiful. Well the people are sour, the native people seem to be resentful of others invading their island, and the cities are smoggy and grotty (even though the streets are free of litter). The island is beautiful, very green and well forested.

Today we went around the island on a local bus which costs sixty cent every time you get on the bus, except that when you have to change a bus to get to a certain point you get a free transfer to the next bus; so the only time you have to pay is when you visit something, and have to get a bus again for another sixty cents. So it would be possible to go right around the whole island for sixty cents.

We went to Wiamea Bay, where the giant waves are, only to find it had waves just slightly larger than those found in the average tea cup. Next we went to Wiamea Park and patted some geese.

As we travelled on a bus from there we overheard a bloke and woman talking about the Sacred Falls, so we decided to get out with them and follow them to the falls. After we got out of the bus we asked them about the falls and they said to walk with them.

The man's name was George, andhe had just finished doing a working tour of Australia. He is from Stratford Upon Avon in England. She was Dianna, from America, and she has just moved to Hawaii. She is a real hippy. Dianna's 39 years old, and gave us some good ideas of places to visit in San Francisco. They both just met today. The falls were quite nice and I ended up taking two photos, one with Dianna giving a peace sign.

The rest of the trip around the island was scenic but uneventful.

10:00 pm.

I finished marking the assignments for the second-year course I was tutoring this semester. I was facilitating workshops for both first- and second-year students at the uni, in management concepts and organisational processes respectively. This was my first semester of tutoring uni students, and I really enjoyed it. I have previously done private tuition, mostly for statistics, but it is a completely different experience facilitating a whole class. I think I was lucky though, as I had pretty motivated students ... generally!

Monday 26/04/93 7:59 am

We were just watching local Hawaiian television news and found out that a woman tourist had been stabbed and killed last night around this area. We had heard sirens last night. She would have been pretty silly going out at night alone, we don't go out at all at night (editing note 13 November 2003: Just before we got on the plane to leave Australia, Monique's father had said to me, "Make sure that you take care of her." I took this too much to heart at the beginning of this first trip, and was overly careful not to ever put Monique in a dangerous situation).

Yesterday was the longest day ever with our time changes.

We went to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbour which was good, and it was free! Also, it only cost us sixty cents to get there on the bus. They had a movie on the Pearl Harbour attack, and then a navy boat ride over to the wreck of the Arizona. There are over a thousand men still entombed inside the ship, which is well rusted but still easy to recognize with one of it's gun turrets sticking out of the water.

We then went to the submarine museum but didn't go in, as it was too expensive. There were a lot of torpedoes, missiles, periscopes, and part of the body of a sub outside that we had a look at.

We took a walk over towards Diamond Head and in the afternoon we went for a swim on Waikiki beach.


Picture: Monique looking at a model of one of the ships that had been sunk in Pearl Harbor


Picture: One of the ships still in the harbor

8:14 am.

I decided to find another animated gif tiger (I love tigers) to use on this site to highlight the start of each new trip journal, so this little fella will do that job:



Also, this exclamation mark will identify interesting or important entries:



Cathy saw me looking for tigers, and said that I needed to find an animated elephant. She loves elephants. She has so many elephant statues! Here's her elephant:



Thanks to Best Animations for the gifs.

Our neighbour did pass away. He had a heart attack about two weeks ago while walking in the forest near our home. His daughter just told us about it. It must have been such a frightening experience for him to be alone in the forest and have had that happen.

His daughter also told us about the reaction of the landlord after hearing about his death. Our neighbour had been living in the unit for over five years; and upon hearing that he had died, the landlord recalled how good a tenant he had been. His rent was even paid far in advance. Even so, the landlord refused to refund any of this money! This seems unnecessarily tight to me.

On a brighter note, here is my next journal entry. At this point, Monique and I were on our way from Brisbane to Hawaii:

Sunday 25/04/93 7:48 pm

We have just taken off from Auckland airport. We spent forty five minutes in the airport before getting back on the same plane. Auckland airport was disappointing in a way because it could have been any part of Australia, so it didn't seem like overseas but it was fun anyway.

We are both getting tired so we'll try to sleep as much as possible on this seven and a half hour flight.

Monique is having pains in her ears as we descend, so I hope this goes away.

We saw New Zealand police at the airport; they wear hats like the English bobbies.

7:56 pm.

Sunday 25/04/93 4:57 am Honolulu time

Didn't sleep much at all during this flight as I was too hot in my long pants and I lost my travel pillow which a steward found a few minutes ago.

During the night I got to talking with one of the stewards, a fellow from Washington DC, who was going to give us his address in Washington. He seems nice, but I might give it a miss and skip the visit; you never know he might have some sort of scam (editing note 12 November 2003: I was a little paranoid, and overly cautious, in my younger days!).

5:03 am.

Sunday 25/04/93 11:09 am Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, U.S.A. 11:09 am

We've gone for a walk around Honolulu and went to Waikiki beach, and had a stroll around the beach. We went out on a rock spit and it was amazing the size and varieties of fish we saw. There was one great big leatherjacket with really bright colours, and I took a photo of a moray eel.


Picture: Diamond Head, Honolulu

We went and bought some groceries and we were shocked at the price; for example, one quart of milk cost us $1.69. We are hoping the prices will be more realistic on the mainland.

11:20 am.

I managed to hurt a muscle in my leg at trampolining tonight, so I am sitting here with my butt on an icepack! Zoe came along with us, and seemed to have a great time.

Here's the next entry in the journal from my first trip overseas:

Sunday 25/04/93 4:20 pm New Zealand time

Here we are at 37,000 feet on our way to Auckland. We have had lunch and are now waiting for the short movie to come on: 'The Simpsons'.

Even now as we are flying, it's so hard to believe that we are actually going.

I woke at 6:30 am (Australian time) and we set off at a bit before 8:00 am for Brisbane Airport, after saying goodbye to Julie (Monique's older sister) and her kids. Things at the airport were pretty uneventful, except for a few tears from Monique's mother (but that was only to be expected). I rang mum to get rid of my loose Australian coins which I can't exchange.

The take off was amazing. We are seated right at the front of the wing so we get a pretty good view. There was a lot of little groups of white clouds (which I photographed) and the islands looked small with white sailed boats in the ocean, you could even see the reefs.

At the moment all that I can see is a carpet of white cloud below us, and light bluey-grey sky above.


Picture: The photo I just mentioned

This flight should take about two hours and forty five minutes in a DC 10. Supposedly, there is going to be some rain Auckland. Hopefully it may be a bit rough, a bit of excitement.

I'll watch 'The Simpsons' now.

4:38 pm.

I promised some background information before I started the journal from my first trip. When I started reading the old journal, I realised that I had already provided the a background. I found it interesting to re-read this entry. I can see the similarities in my writing style between then and now, but it is a little embarrassing to read the very formal style I used!


Here is the first entry from the journal I started writing before my first trip overseas:

Saturday 29/08/1992 (6:00 pm approximately)

Due to my decision to record the events of the next few months or years I have chosen to begin what I will call an Event Diary. This will probably not be an in depth diary of feelings, but rather a history of important occurrences in the coming months. I have chosen to keep a diary because in the next year I will be leaving Warwick (Australia, Qld) to go on a world journey. This journey I will not think of so much as a holiday but as a lifestyle change. I will begin a nine-day full time course in gym instructing starting on November 30th to begin to qualify me to use this as a career during my journey and when I return. During my writing I will on occasion put to paper what I consider to be important events in my past. These entries will be written as they come to mind and will be accompanied by an approximate date. Another reason for my decision to record events is to help in remembering events so they may act as fodder for future writings. This diary may only ever be read be me, but I will endeavour to write it in a manner so as to allow it to be read by others whether they be family (maybe children or grandchildren) or maybe strangers (who knows where time will put these books). As I wrote before, previous events will be added in as they are remembered, but I feel I should perhaps write a little on my basic history and current position.

My name is David Manning and I am 23 at this time. I lived at Greenacre in Sydney, NSW, Australia until I was around nine years old. At this time, my mother (Maureen) separated from my father (Brian) due to his alcoholism. The next period of my life was spent with my mother going from one place to another, until she received her share of the money from the sale of the house they had shared. Finally, at the age of about fourteen, I moved with my mother to Warwick where she bought a house. I lived there until I was nineteen. Attended high school at the local state school until a couple of months into year eleven, when I left after gaining employment in a local hardware store. This job was only casual, so I soon left to work in a piggery in Allora. After working there for maybe nine months (for $116 dollars a week) I left for a better paying job at the Warwick Bacon Factory. Due to a repetitive strain injury in my right elbow, I left there to return to the hardware store on a full time basis, leaving there after approximately one year due to lack of work. After quite a few casual jobs, I joined Campbells Hardware in Warwick for a year or so then joined the Warwick Daily News where I am currently employed. I have been with the Daily News working on a machine that makes magazines for three years now.

Toward the end of 1988, I received a call from a friend of my father's, Ken, saying that my father was in a terminally ill hospital in Sydney and that he only days had to live. Due to the fact that my father had been ill before, and Ken had said the same thing to me previously, I was a bit sceptical but proceeded to get a bus to Sydney. On arrival, I found my father in hospital in a very poor (bad) condition. After sitting beside his bed and calling him four or five times, he opened his eyes and I could see recognition there; maybe there was even the faintest smile. My father died that night without regaining consciousness. I always found it amazing that he seemed to wait until I arrived before he died, and knowing that he recognised me is comforting.

From his estate, I bought a cheap house in Warwick. I moved into that house a April of the next year with my new six week old Staffordshire Bull Terrier pup, Arnold, and have been living there since. A year and a half ago, I met up with a girl called Monique at a local disco. We began seeing each other on a serious basis early in 1991. As we were both unsure of our positions (due to the fact we both had problems in our previous relationships), our relationship was slow to start, but has progressed from friends to probable marriage partners. At this point in time our relationship is strong, fights are almost non-existent, and our feelings for each other are equal and constant. At this point Monique had just returned from a two-month holiday in England with her parents.

During this time I made the decision that I didn't want to stay in Warwick doing the same old meaningless jobs and that I had a need to see the world. I made the choice to leave and asked Monique to come with me (editing note 10 November, 2003: I didn't actually ask her to begin with. I told her that I was going, planning to travel the world alone. After many tears, it was her that decided that I wasn't leaving without her). Much to my surprise, she said "yes" without any major doubts, and is probably going to tell her parents (who live in Toowoomba) tomorrow. This is the only real problem, as her parents are old fashioned and will probably have a fit, as Monique doesn't even tell them when we go off for weekends together.

Speaking of weekends away together, we spent last weekend at Bestbrook Mountain Resort staying in a cabin and riding horses. On our way back on Sunday afternoon we climbed Mount Cordeux at Cunninghams Gap. We reached the end of the walk trail at 4 pm and began our return journey. I didn't think we would make it back before dark, but this didn't worry me as I had been up there before at night (another story I shall tell later) and had not had any trouble. It got dark as we were about half way down the 6.7 km track. There was no moon, no light at all. We could not see the track, or each other, and had to proceed holding hands with Monique walking in the middle of the track to feel it beneath her feet and me walking with one foot against the cutting of the track feeling the way. We finally made it back to the car at 7:30 pm.

Upon arriving home, I discovered two ticks embedded in my neck which Monique promptly pulled out with a pair of tweezers. This event was good as it showed me that Monique is unlikely to panic in such situations, which will help when we are overseas. I think it must be just about time for me to finish this first entry of my first diary. During writing this diary I will endeavour to write only clearly remembered facts, any events distorted in my memory by time or any other reason will be omitted or the reader will be clearly told that it is an unsure subject and I will explain it the best way that I can.

8:00 pm.

Friday 23/04/93 10:38 am


Picture: The pendant I was given by Ronin Karate

I did my aerobics class instruction last night then trained down the gym. From the gym I went to karate, where the club awarded me a pendant with the insignia that I've drawn above (editing note 10 November 2003: in the original book. I have replaced it with a scan of the pendent) inscribed on it to wear on my trip overseas (editing note 10 November 2003: I still have that pendant though the chain is long gone. I wear it constantly as it has been through so much with me).

I received a presentation at work at 10:00 am this morning. I was given a travel towel for overseas.

We have wedding practice tonight (editing note 10 November 2003: Monique and I were both in a wedding party the day before we left for the USA).

I got my eye glasses yesterday and they make a bit of difference when I'm wearing them. My eyes seem OK without them still (editing note 10 November 2003: Denial?).

Not long now!


Picture: Me and the packpack I took on my first trip overseas

10:50 am.

Sunday 25/05/93 2:16 am

I'm at Monique's parent's house in Toowoomba. We have just driven up here and will be leaving in the morning for Brisbane.

We had a long day today or yesterday I should say. I got up at five in the morning and began last minute preparations. I was picked up by Gordon to get ready for the wedding at noon. The wedding went well. I'll write more tomorrow I'm too tired now.


Picture: At Gordan and Lisa's wedding

2:23 am.

Okay, so I've finished posting in my journal from the Sydney trip. The next trip journal I will post will be from my first trip. I started this trip when I was 24 years old, and I spent seven months travelling through the USA, UK, Europe, Turkey, Egypt, Southern Africa, Singapore and Malaysia. Before I start on the journal for this trip, I will provide a bit of back ground information. I'm tired, though; so that can wait until tomorrow ...

Cathy and I went out for Thai food tonight, dining in at our favourite restaurant. Before we left, though, I decided to do a bit of wildlife photography.

I could hear the fruit bats out in the palm tree in front of our unit, and decided to play paparazzi. I snuck up on them as a plane flew overhead, hiding any noise I might have made. They were completely unaware when I took this candid shot:


Picture: Fruitbats (click to enlarge)

Here is the last of my journal entries for the Sydney trip (I will put up larger photos from the trip in an album tomorrow):

Monday, 01/01/01, 7:14 pm, Patonga, in a campsite near the beach

I didn't get attacked by any ghosts in the 'ghost town' last night; although, I did get rained on a bit.

Today was fairly uneventful until I was approaching The Entrance. As I came around a corner a crunching sound in the long grass drew my attention to my left. I coasted past the clump of trees that where obscuring my view. To my complete surprise, there were three elephants chewing contentedly on the grass! I must admit that I was expecting some sort of large animal, perhaps a couple of kangaroos or cows, not definitely not something that large.

Of course, I stopped and took at photo. I then noticed that hidden by another clump of trees was an encamped circus. Problem solved; sort of.

The next thing that confused me was that these Elephas maximus (Indian elephants [just showing off]) were not tethered, nor were they enclosed by a fence. They could just wander off and explore Australia at will. I contemplated telling someone at the circus that his or her pets were off taking a stroll. Once again, as I moved along the road, the trees revealed an old man sitting on the grass minding them.


Picture: Elephants on the loose???

The road to Patonga ended in a doozy of a hill, both the up leg and the down. The place itself is a pretty little community of about 300 people. I went for a walk around the point of the headland and watched some birds of prey. One large eagle swooped down to the ocean, clawed up a fish, and sped back to a tree near me to eat it, pursued all the way by a seagull. Sitting there, I watched it pull the fish to bits and eat it.

Addendum: Once I got to Sydney

I didn't write anything in my journal after Patonga.

The next morning I caught the ferry across to Palm beach and cycled from there to Steve's place in Neutral Bay. I spent two nights with Steve and two nights with another friend of mine, Celeste.

Finally, on the Friday, I caught the XPT train back to Brisbane, arriving back at 6 am on Sunday.


Picture: I made it!!!!

We think that one of our neighbours might have died. We live in a block of four units, and we haven't seen the fellow to the east of us for a week or so. It is not be typical of him to go away without saying something, and his car had been missing all that time. It looked like his daughters, and perhaps their boyfriends, were going through his place today when I got home. They had a garbage bin at the side door and were dumping things in that. From the few words I caught as I walked past, it sounded like they were divvying up his worldly goods. One of the other neighbours, Melissa, told me later that one daughter had come around to Melissa's flat last weekend asking if she had seen her father. The daughter had her father's car, so she was surprised to not find him at home.

We did hear that a body was found in the forest near us. Maybe he had a heart attack while walking; he used to walk up there quite often.

If he is dead, we'll miss him. We didn't know him very well, but he was always friendly.

On a brighter note, here's the next Sydney trip entry:

Sunday, 31/12/2000, about 7:00 pm, in an abandoned mining village near Caves Beach, south of Newcastle (Trip meter: 875 km)

Is it possible for a person to spend New Years Eve in stranger, and creepier, places! Last year I was on top of a bat-infested mountain. This year I am in a ghost town! But let me take a step back and start from this morning because there is plenty to tell.

I slept in this morning, until around 7:00 am. There was no need to rush, as the ferry from Tea Gardens to Nelsons Bay did not leave until 10:00 am. As I was in no hurry, I walked the bike from Hawks Nest to Tea Gardens.

There is a large bridge that spans the waterway separating Hawks Nest and Tea Gardens. I looked down as I was walking across the bridge to see six large stingrays milling about in the shallow water below. When I got to the other side, I went to a house that advertised ferry tickets to Nelsons Bay.

I got to talking with the elderly lady who was selling me the ticket ($10), while her husband and another elderly couple sat at a table behind her eating breakfast. I mentioned going to Leyland Brothers World the previous day, at which she told me now they were friends with the Leylands. She spoke of how sad it had been when "those men in black came in to close it down".

The ferry left at 10:00 am as expected. It was a pristine white twin-deck boat, with a big section on the bow to stand; which was where I positioned myself of course. This was fortunate because half way across the bay we encountered a pod of dolphins, who performed well for us.


Picture: Leaving Tea Gardens


Picture: A view across the bow

Not much else of interest occurred until I hit Newcastle. The first sense data you receive in Newcastle are visions of huge ugly metal machines, giant cargo ships, piles of black coal, and fumes of oily rank coal mixed with the scent of something else I couldn't identify. Entering the outskirts of the city; I found it depressing. The houses were often aged and and the lawns overgrown. The thing that really got to me was that, aside from the cars, everything was so quiet, like everyone had just gone, "stuff this place", and left. There seemed to be no noise coming from the houses, nobody watering their plants. I really couldn't wait to get out of the place.


Picture: Shipyards in Newcastle


Picture: Windmill power generator

Heading further down the coast, I turned off towards Caves Beach, following signs to the campsite. When I got there the office was closed and a 'no vacancy' sign was up. My map showed another route out of the town and back to the Pacific Highway. I asked a man who was walking past for directions and he said that the route had been closed. This seemed unlikely to me, so I headed off in the most promising direction to check it out for myself.

This turned out to be the correct direction. I came up against a 'No Through Road' sign, where I asked directions from a young couple who were out for a late afternoon walk. They told me that the road I was looking for was beyond the 'No Through Road' sign. It was an old abandoned mining road that led up through the forested hill and back to the highway. They told me that it would be a rough ride, and they were right. The road was steep and covered with ruts and loose stones, often spilled coal. There were many times where I had to get off my bike and push when my rear wheel just span in the gravel.


Picture: The coastline at the start of the abandoned mining road

Eventually, I reached the abandoned mining village where I am now camped. There are almost no buildings left standing, only some car bodies, foundations and a chimney that is a couple of metres from my tent.


Picture: The abandoned mining village

The ground here is so hard that my tent pegs couldn't be driven in. I had to use my bike as the front stay and an old rusted chair to hold the rope at the rear of the tent. Two bricks are holding down the side guy ropes.

The one night a week of trampolining has quickly escalated into one night night of trampolining and one of gymnastics. It was my first attempt at gymnastics tonight (except for school sports over 20 years ago!). I was pretty happy with myself, as I managed to do my first proper cartwheel! I spent ages doing forward somersaults from the mini-tramp, and my legs are killing me. It is amazing that even after so many years of exercise something different can really knock you around.

Speaking of something different, riding to Sydney:

Saturday, 30/12/2000, 8:47 pm, at a campsite at Hawks Nest (Trip meter: 784 km)

What an interesting day!

I slept in until about 7:00 am this morning; I felt that I needed it. Cycling through the Lake District was very picturesque. While cycling out, I hit a set of steep ranges, which certainly gave my legs the greatest test they have had so far this trip. The traffic and exhaust fumes didn't help at all. Throughout this whole trip the number of cars on the road has been terrible.

I rejoined the Pacific Highway and began making swifter progress south now that I had a wide verge and smooth bitumen instead of potholes. About 10 km south of Buladelah, I stopped at a rest site for a kip on a picnic table. After waking around 2:30 pm, I started peddling south again. Ten or 12 km further down the highway I came across a family of five broken down by the side of the road…

Sorry about that break; the tent just collapsed in the wind. The tent pegs are in soft sand, so I just had to bodgie things up a bit to stop it happening again.

Anyhow, back to the story. The father had his head under the bonnet looking frustrated. I asked him if I could help in any way. First of all, he wanted to know how far he'd have to walk south to the next town to try to get a replacement for his broken drive belt. I told him that the next town was about 40 km away, stuffing up that idea.

I pulled out a map that I picked up from a fellow at a service station just after getting off the dirt (mud) road from Kyie's Hut. It contained a lot of advertising, and also the telephone number of a tourist information centre in Buladelah. He rang this on his mobile and eventually obtained the number of an auto shop in the town who were willing to bring him the parts he needed. The family passed me when I was about 45 minutes further down the road, honking their horn three times as they drove by. Obviously, the auto shop had come to their rescue.

Just a bit of extra trivia, the guys name was Dave and they also come from Brisbane.

At the turnoff for Hawks Nest, I saw a sign for 'Leyland Brothers World 1 km south', so I extended my trip on the highway by 2 km and checked it out. It turned out that this was once a fun/theme/studio park run by the 'lords of the flies' themselves, The Leyland Brothers, until it sent them broke.

The first thing you see at 'Leyland Brothers World 1 km south' is a huge replica of Ayres Rock with a service station growing out of one side. After a couple of photos, I went in to get a drink and some food. The inside was huge, filled with unattended stalls (complete with stock still sitting on the shelves), computer games, exhibits etc.


Picture: Ayres Rock???

I ended up chatting with one of the employees and he offered to let me climb the rock; which had been banned because it was deemed too dangerous for insurance reasons. From the top we could see the remnants of what once had been a reasonably impressive theme park. The whole place had the feel of a ghost town. The rock itself even contained a two-story house!


Picture: The house inside the rock


Picture: Leyland Brothers World: Ghost town, almost

After this detour, I cycled into Tea Gardens, but found all the ferries to Nelsons Bay gone, and all the campsites full. I continued on to Hawks Nest, where I found a very nice (if very expensive) campsite.

That night, I checked my emails at a local video store. Two of my friends who live in Sydney had offered to have me stay with them when I get there. That should be fun.


Picture: Sunset on the beach at Hawks Nest looking east


Picture: Same again, this time looking west

I'm am completely exhausted. Work, training and trampolining have worn me out this week. I think that it is time for an early night, but I'll post the next entry from my trip to Sydney journal first and also a few more photos from last night that Eileen sent.


Here are some more photos from last night's trampolining:
Trampolining 3

The Sydney trip:

Friday, 29/12/2000, 6:54 pm, at a lovely campsite south of Forster


Picture: Campsite by the lake in Forster

Points to note for future reference:
* Yes, the tent does leak in heavy rain!
* I have learned the ability to sleep soundly through anything, including: water dripping on my face and laying on a sleeping bag that is absorbing water off the floor of the tent as well as that which is raining down upon it from the roof.
* Wet tents and sleeping bags weigh 2-3 times as much as dry ones.
* My panniers are not waterproof.
* Wet Uncle Toby's muslie bars may look unappetising but they taste the same as dry ones.
* The little plastic Le Snack thingies are much more robust in the wet than the mushy mess that was the box they came in.

You may have gathered that it rained last night at Kylie's Hut. It started some time around 9:00 pm and fell constantly until about noon. Although the inside of my tent was starting to resemble a Fens swamp, I only woke up a couple of times: once when water began to drip on my face (I was too tired to move so I just slept through the 'Chinese water torture'), and the other time was when I rolled over and the sleeping bag squelched beneath me (this too I ignored). It just goes to show that the ability that allowed me to sleep through lions roaring beside my tent in Africa is still alive and well.

Packing up the sloppy mess that was my camp in the rain at 5:00 am was an interesting experience.

The fellow from the bait shop (where I had asked for directions to the national park yesterday) had called the road I had to take to get back onto the Pacific Highway today "the roughest dirt road you'll ever see." It wasn't, but this morning, in the rain, it had become a long collection of potholes filled with water, surrounded by corrugation that couldn't be seen in the rain. The going was slow, wet, and dirty. I didn't want to buckle a wheel in one of the potholes. I was especially careful for two reasons. First, I already have one broken spoke on my front wheel; therefore, the others are probably getting weak. The other reason is that every time I'd fall into a pothole or shudder over corrugation, I could feel the pressure on the bike coming from the extra weight of water in the packed sleeping bag and tent.

Apart from these things, I was reasonably comfortable. I had my army rain poncho on over a thermal tee shirt that is warm even when wet.

I reached the Pacific Highway around 11:00 am and washed my bike's gears relatively clean at a service station. The rain stopped about an hours cycle further down the highway.

There was only one other really interesting incident today. I was approaching a narrow bridge on the highway. I could tell by sight and by the road signs that there wasn't enough room for a car in each direction and me, so I was looking for a walkway on either side of the bridge. Not seeing one, I decided to halt on the side of the approach and to appraise the situation. There was plenty of room for a car to pass me on my right and I couldn't hear a truck (it is hard to miss the sound of a truck barrelling down beside you). You can imagine my surprise when a coach bulbar shuddered into the peripheral vision of my right eye, accompanied by the squeal of the bus's breaks. The coach must have been centimetres off my rear wheel! The driver must have seen my predicament on the bridge because he stopped on one side of the bridge until I was safely on the other side.


Picture: The Lake District

We just got back from trampolining. The cameras were going crazy this time. Eileen (a girl from Germany that Cathy and I met at trampolining) had her camera there too, so we hope to get copies of her photos at some stage. Here are the photos we took tonight:


Trampolining 2

I mentioned our walk through the forest in my entry yesterday. Here are pictures I took before that guy decided to start acting strangely:


Our Walk Through the Forest

And here is the next entry of the cycling to Sydney journal:

Thursday, 28/12/2000, approx 7:00 pm, at Kylie's Hut in the Crowdy Bay National Park, 10 km or so south of Laurieton, which is south of Port Macquarie (Trip meter: 588 km)


Picture: The dusty road (soon to turn muddy) on the way to Kylie's Hut


Picture: Here come the roos


Picture: Here Skipp...


Picture: Are you talkin' to me?


Picture: It's the baby!


Picture: Dinner time

I am writing this sitting on the front porch of Kylie's Hut. This hut was originally owned by the author Kylie Tennant (1912-1988). One of the local bushmen/farmers, Ernie Metcalf built the hut from slabs of wood from the original buildings at nearby Diamond Head (it did remind me of Diamond Head in Hawaii).


Picture: Kylie's Hut

As I am writing this there are four eastern grey kangaroos grazing six or seven metres away, paying me almost no attention. To my left is a big buck, who is not terribly much smaller than me! Another buck just passed me to the right, even closer, using that strange forepaw walk they use when they eat.


Picture: A big buck and a doe

In fact, within ten minutes of getting to this site I'd seen four Kangaroos, a fox (dammit!), and an echidna. When I think about it, the fox may have been hunting the spiny little critter. Me stumbling along possibly saved the fox a pricked mouth.


Picture: An echidna


Picture: Would you like to cuddle this little critter?

I had a bit of a wander down to the beach earlier. There were two of those motorised parachutes flying around the point to the northern end of the beach. And along the beach 4WDs were leaving their footprints.


Picture: If you look hard then you can see them flying


Picture: Flying over the beach

But here, near Kylie's Hut, no cars are allowed, so there are only about a dozen tents in this clearing surrounded by thick forest.

Today was supposed to be a light cycling day. After 120 km yesterday, I had planned on limiting myself to 80 km today. I ended up covering 105 km, 20 to 25 of which were on dirt road. I think that the corrugations in the dirt road to Kylie's Hut have left me with a permanent stutter!

By the way, the rain stopped last night and I didn't end up getting wet. The first thing I did this morning when I reached Port Macquarie was to try to purchase a fly for my tent. The fellow at the camping shop said that they couldn't obtain flys for A-frame tents. The problem is that dome tents are a pain in the arse to put up on your own; so instead I bought something to stop another pain in the arse.

My saddle on my bike was broken. I bought a new one from a bike shop that was close to the camping store I just mentioned. It turned out that the fellow who served me was in the Australian Olympic cycling team in Moscow.

I had forgotten yesterday to mention a shocking bit of bad luck that occurred to me. As I was riding some unfortunate insect flew into my mouth. Of course, this had me violently trying to spit it out. After a couple of pathetic tries, I gathered up a good mouthful of saliva and spat with impressive velocity towards the side of the road. The spittle whacked firmly, right in the centre of a white cross marking the place where some poor guy had died in a car accident. Even though it was an accident, I felt as if I had committed some vile sacrilege.