So off we went for surfcamp. A wicked track we were supposed to follow from Sydney to Byron Bay, along the Eastcoast, hopefully ending up somewhere along the coast preferably in no man's land.
And that's exactly what happened.
First of all the feeling of driving around with a bus or van when the hot sun is shining, with the windows open and the wind flowing into your face and body, with the right tune in the background is, to me, an awesome feeling of freedom of which I want to taste more. It is that experience that made me thinking to rent my own van. Now all I need is find someone to close the deal with and we're off. So that's what I'll try to do after I reach Brisbane. :-)
Back to surfcamp. The first two days actually sucked due to excessive rainfall. When you're from Belgium this is unacceptable! I do not want to see rain!!! (It's raining now btw, that's why I have time to blog :))) On day three the sun kicked in tho.
The surflessons were sweet and we got a pretty good idea of how the waves do their thing and the ocean controls these little waterhills. And of course, how to ride 'em. Now I did some surfing camps some years ago in France, but we did not get too much explanation there what to do, just take a board and go figure it out. So that really sucked compared to this.
The Australians take surfing way more serious then the French. It's a way of life here as compared to in France. We learned the different types of waves, the tides and the ocean bottom and how it influences the waves, we learned about curls and rip curls, righthanders, lefthanders and general board control.
The parties were not too shabby either since most of the folks ended up pretty smashed night after night. Especially Tuesday night was big since the second group arrived too and the general programme was "drinking games". We were complete and ready to kick-off the week. There were about 70-80 of us. Result: bad end :-P Or depends how you see it of course :-)
We stayed on some sort of old farm with cabbana's spread around the domain and a central cabbana with swimming pool and a large room for eating, partying and bar etc. The domain was filled with kangooroos, possums and probably snakes too. For more insight I refer to some of the pictures on facebook.
We drove the little bus back and forth everyday to different beaches, most of which quite deserted and people-less. Good for making a fool out of yourself while learning :)
On the fourth day we moved to a new sleeping place to surf our final day. I guess it's too much writing to explain everything that happened, so to sum things up: lots of new people, lots of surfing - almost every time after a hangover - and lots of beer, sangia, goon and other tasty crap.
Highlight of the whole camp: Surfing is THE medicine for hangover :)
Once in Byron Bay the group spread out to many hostels, some of them leaving Byron and others staying for a few more days of partying, surfing, tanning, hiking, or whatever you wanna do. The memorable ones I have on facebook so I will skip mentioning names of people i've met :)
In Byron the first day I arrived in a cool "island resort" in the Arts Factory, surrounded by mosquitos, reptiles and weird-looking black chicken-like creatures with red heads. Seemed like a combination of a chicken, a turkey and a vulture. They looked like birds of death lol :P ugly as hell and they could kinda fly a little bit since they got into the trees too (unlike chickens). A must-see when visiting Byron. I met up there with Sara again too. It was time for a few days of Byron Bay.
donderdag 26 februari 2009
zondag 15 februari 2009
Swimming with sharks, sandsurfing, wild dolphins and Newcastle
So another wild and intense few days have passed. I'm exhausted and I even got sick for 2 days due to "overdoing". Typical me yeah I know. Started off with a trip to go swimming with sharks in a closed kinda aquarium thingie. The thing was filled with stingrays and different kinds of sharks. It was really a-w-e-s-o-m-e to feed these creatures and swim with them, hug them and touch them. One of em almost bit my finger off, but it was my own fault coz I wasnt wearing gloves. The stingrays can be hugged, theyre kinda like pets, comparable to a dog or something lol...grab em, hug em, tickle em and laugh. hahaha. Loved it.
Next was the sandsurfing, which was amazing were it not for all the f***ing rain... We got two rides down and it was soooo cool, but we got so wet soaked that we decided we wanted to run from the rain.
Real pity for the rain, or i'd loved to have a few more rides in the sand.
After lunch we went on a boat trip to see wild dolphins. It was too cold and rainy to get into the waternet with the dolphins :( but seeing them was quite an emotional experience. Magnificent creatures. Very hard to take pics but I managed to get a few, see facebook for that.
I skipped the second day of the safari because the evening party at Newcastle was too intense. Didnt miss too much, coz it was wine tasting anyway :) We have enough good wines in Europe. :P I met Sabi from germany which I like veeery "mUch"(with Irish accent) so we spent a few great days together in Newcastle. I also met two Irish guys at the YHA which are absolutely insane fun :D So we kinda partied all weekend together with the rest of the peeps from the Hostel, both in pubs, clubs as at some Aussies place, to that extent that I got sick from sitting in the soaking rain on the beach at 5 in the morning, paralized by alcohol, with way too much wind. Marcel and Barry are the two Irishman, world travellers of a similar kind like me. Hope to meet the guys again in Byron Bay for another ride. Hope Matilda (its the name of their van) gets fixed so they get there by next week.
We drank way too much "goon" which is actually cheap australian wine which gives you a headache the day after. Its like superpopular here.
Today was goodbye day since I had to leave Newcastle :( Had to say Bye to Sabi and all the great folks there. Sabi I hope youll have good times at your new place with Connie! Say hello to her from me!! Can't forget to mention Rebecca, which I called "CCG", Crazy Canadian Girl, coz she is completely f***ing crazy (hope she doesnt read this :P) and she's canadian. She started calling herself CCG so we were kinda cool :P And not to forget the annoying american girls with their high heels and tons of make up :P Their room looked like a hurricane had passed by. Women tssss :) The guys' rooms were so MUCH more cleaner hehe. See pics on facebook hrhrhr. Tomorrow starts my surfcamp so ill prolly be away and offline for some time surfing between all the sharks that started to appear here lately. But no worries mates! We'll be fine ;)
Being back in Sydney today I felt kinda bit lonely/homesick for a few hours. It's a shock to be alone again after the intense days in Newcastle.
Newcastle really rocked. With such bad weather and so few things to do we had an absolutely great time. But the rain started getting to me in the end (and so did my cold).
Looking forward to Skydiving in Byron Bay :-)
Anyway...let the adventure continue. :D
And remember...No Worries Mates :-)
LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!
Next was the sandsurfing, which was amazing were it not for all the f***ing rain... We got two rides down and it was soooo cool, but we got so wet soaked that we decided we wanted to run from the rain.
Real pity for the rain, or i'd loved to have a few more rides in the sand.
After lunch we went on a boat trip to see wild dolphins. It was too cold and rainy to get into the waternet with the dolphins :( but seeing them was quite an emotional experience. Magnificent creatures. Very hard to take pics but I managed to get a few, see facebook for that.
I skipped the second day of the safari because the evening party at Newcastle was too intense. Didnt miss too much, coz it was wine tasting anyway :) We have enough good wines in Europe. :P I met Sabi from germany which I like veeery "mUch"(with Irish accent) so we spent a few great days together in Newcastle. I also met two Irish guys at the YHA which are absolutely insane fun :D So we kinda partied all weekend together with the rest of the peeps from the Hostel, both in pubs, clubs as at some Aussies place, to that extent that I got sick from sitting in the soaking rain on the beach at 5 in the morning, paralized by alcohol, with way too much wind. Marcel and Barry are the two Irishman, world travellers of a similar kind like me. Hope to meet the guys again in Byron Bay for another ride. Hope Matilda (its the name of their van) gets fixed so they get there by next week.
We drank way too much "goon" which is actually cheap australian wine which gives you a headache the day after. Its like superpopular here.
Today was goodbye day since I had to leave Newcastle :( Had to say Bye to Sabi and all the great folks there. Sabi I hope youll have good times at your new place with Connie! Say hello to her from me!! Can't forget to mention Rebecca, which I called "CCG", Crazy Canadian Girl, coz she is completely f***ing crazy (hope she doesnt read this :P) and she's canadian. She started calling herself CCG so we were kinda cool :P And not to forget the annoying american girls with their high heels and tons of make up :P Their room looked like a hurricane had passed by. Women tssss :) The guys' rooms were so MUCH more cleaner hehe. See pics on facebook hrhrhr. Tomorrow starts my surfcamp so ill prolly be away and offline for some time surfing between all the sharks that started to appear here lately. But no worries mates! We'll be fine ;)
Being back in Sydney today I felt kinda bit lonely/homesick for a few hours. It's a shock to be alone again after the intense days in Newcastle.
Newcastle really rocked. With such bad weather and so few things to do we had an absolutely great time. But the rain started getting to me in the end (and so did my cold).
Looking forward to Skydiving in Byron Bay :-)
Anyway...let the adventure continue. :D
And remember...No Worries Mates :-)
LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!
zondag 8 februari 2009
Sydney
Sydney is HoT!
Nothing but positive vibes coming from this city. I especially loved the nightlife. Huge amounts of hot chicks (read: beautiful girls) and a plethora of night clubs. Perfect city for going out and pick up for whoever is into that. (not me tho :P) Darling harbour is a wonderful place and I could easily spend my whole day there and discover new stuff all the time. Actually darling harbour is what I liked the most. The opera house is nothing special, just another overhyped must-see. Chinatown is really cool too! I enjoyed walking around there. Feels like your in Asia and not in Australia. I'm at Bondi beach now. Its all surf here, so lets just do that and forget about all the rest. I dont feel like writing coz its too hot here in this room.
I have a week to fill before my surfcamp starts. Maybe i'll hit Melbourne for a few days and go down to Adelaide. Time for some beer now ^^
Dunno, who cares, as long as were rollin'
See ya ;) :p
Nothing but positive vibes coming from this city. I especially loved the nightlife. Huge amounts of hot chicks (read: beautiful girls) and a plethora of night clubs. Perfect city for going out and pick up for whoever is into that. (not me tho :P) Darling harbour is a wonderful place and I could easily spend my whole day there and discover new stuff all the time. Actually darling harbour is what I liked the most. The opera house is nothing special, just another overhyped must-see. Chinatown is really cool too! I enjoyed walking around there. Feels like your in Asia and not in Australia. I'm at Bondi beach now. Its all surf here, so lets just do that and forget about all the rest. I dont feel like writing coz its too hot here in this room.
I have a week to fill before my surfcamp starts. Maybe i'll hit Melbourne for a few days and go down to Adelaide. Time for some beer now ^^
Dunno, who cares, as long as were rollin'
See ya ;) :p
vrijdag 6 februari 2009
First impressions
The flight was perfect. Being transferred to Gold Business class due to an overbooking on Economy was a blast. Thank you so much Etihad Airways!!
After landing I hopped into bed at the Sydbey Beach House Youth Hostel to wake up at 6:30 and start my first day. Around noon I met up with Saartje and we went off for some drinks at a beach bar and discussed further plans. Thanks you Sara for the tips on Sydney!! In the afternoon I met Candice from Canada at the Youth Hostel. After a 15 minute chat we decided to hit the beach together and swim a bit in the ocean.
Once baked from the sun, we went off for some drinks and ended up kissing at some bar. Not bad for day 1 ;)
I ended the afternoon I met up with sara again and we had supper at some Thai restaurant which was pretty tasty. I had squid and she had coconut curry beef. Mmmmm. I even got to finish the coconut curry Beef :P Thanks again saartje :D
I decided to leave Collaroy and hit Sydney City for 2 days, that is where Im writing from now. Id rather stay at the beach but Sydney has to be seen. So thats up for the next two days, with Bondi Beach planned for Sunday or possibly tomorrow evening for some beach party. After that I think I will do a weeklong surfcamp which will take us along the coast to Byron Bay, a well known hippy-like spot. Im curious :)
Coming to Australia with a plan is useless. With hostels around every corner, this is a backpackers DREAM. Ive met and talked to people on the train, bus, beach, restaurants, bars...everywhere ... most of the time resulting in exchanging phone numbers and mails. I need an australian number ASAP. Safari trips, surf camps, waterskiing, skydiving, diving in coral reef, swimming with dolphins...you name it, anything is possible here. People here smile and say Hi on the streets, unlike in Belgium. Life resolves around nature and water here, not only around WORK like in Belgium it does. I simply LOVE this place.
I dont want any kind of plan...I just let myself be indulged in its beauty and sucked up into the reality of Australia. Its so different from Europe.
Its a bit like Alice in Wonderland. With the only difference, this being REAL.
Many kisses from downunder,
Blog to you soon.
I LOVE you guys.
Pat.
After landing I hopped into bed at the Sydbey Beach House Youth Hostel to wake up at 6:30 and start my first day. Around noon I met up with Saartje and we went off for some drinks at a beach bar and discussed further plans. Thanks you Sara for the tips on Sydney!! In the afternoon I met Candice from Canada at the Youth Hostel. After a 15 minute chat we decided to hit the beach together and swim a bit in the ocean.
Once baked from the sun, we went off for some drinks and ended up kissing at some bar. Not bad for day 1 ;)
I ended the afternoon I met up with sara again and we had supper at some Thai restaurant which was pretty tasty. I had squid and she had coconut curry beef. Mmmmm. I even got to finish the coconut curry Beef :P Thanks again saartje :D
I decided to leave Collaroy and hit Sydney City for 2 days, that is where Im writing from now. Id rather stay at the beach but Sydney has to be seen. So thats up for the next two days, with Bondi Beach planned for Sunday or possibly tomorrow evening for some beach party. After that I think I will do a weeklong surfcamp which will take us along the coast to Byron Bay, a well known hippy-like spot. Im curious :)
Coming to Australia with a plan is useless. With hostels around every corner, this is a backpackers DREAM. Ive met and talked to people on the train, bus, beach, restaurants, bars...everywhere ... most of the time resulting in exchanging phone numbers and mails. I need an australian number ASAP. Safari trips, surf camps, waterskiing, skydiving, diving in coral reef, swimming with dolphins...you name it, anything is possible here. People here smile and say Hi on the streets, unlike in Belgium. Life resolves around nature and water here, not only around WORK like in Belgium it does. I simply LOVE this place.
I dont want any kind of plan...I just let myself be indulged in its beauty and sucked up into the reality of Australia. Its so different from Europe.
Its a bit like Alice in Wonderland. With the only difference, this being REAL.
Many kisses from downunder,
Blog to you soon.
I LOVE you guys.
Pat.
dinsdag 3 februari 2009
And off we go!
Many people, both friends and foes, have asked me the same question over and over again:Why do you engage on such a journey?
Ironically, most people connect such a trip to thoughts like "running away from something" or "looking for something that you won't find anyway if you can't find it here". What if none of both were really true? What about a genuine fascination to the world around us? What about learning truly being independant in the most difficult situations life has to offer, like having no food or water, or no safe place to sleep? What about learning about new cultures, not just from movies, books or documentaries or a cropped-up-three-weeks-bus-ride-call it how you like it-tourist-vacation.I could come up with tons of reasons, but those two answers just keep coming up in people's minds over and over again.
In reaction to those many strange opinions I've heard over the past few months, here is why I am doing this trip, and not why you THINK I'm doing this trip.
First of all, travelling around the world has become fairly easy these days and much more comfortable. It demands less and less physical requirements, and it is also much less dangerous then it used to be(apart from a few places that is). Even when we are in a dangerous situation, nowadays there are rescue teams and helicopters that will reach us far sooner then anytime in the past decennia was even thinkable. Equipment got much better and lots of technological improvements have been introduced; example: CELLULAR PHONE. Call anyone, anywhere, anytime you want. I don't want to say it's "better" nowadays. It's just different.
"The need for fascination; the desire for the unknown - that, which is on the other side - has always intrigued people curious of the wide world; curious of "something different" - Thor Heyerdahl once wrote.Be it in the bushes of Australia, the Gran Salar in the Atacam Desert or the Kilimanjaro which yearly more than ten thousand people climb nowadays, you will meet tourists representing all professions: students, nurses, lawyers, engineers, secretaries, doctors, bus drivers. It is known that contact with different cultures changes a person; it forms and shapes his views and helps him to better understand the diversity of the world, which in todays' times of conflicts, wars and ignorance is more important than ever before.
Some sceptics say "Know that just leaving as a donkey, will not make you return as a horse." But when leaving on such a trip, one must do so with an open mind ready to register new things, experience new situations and meet new interesting people. The Danish arch-bishop Christian Andersen once wrote "He who travels, lives twice". The famous French geographer Elisée Reclus once said: "A man who travels a lot, is like a a stone carried away thousands of miles by water; its shape becomes more rounded, and its sharp corners disappear. Its' roughness fades away and it becomes much more softer."I think travelling ensures a tremendous educational value, awakening emotions in a person which enable us to experience the beautiful, get to know different people, and most of all, ourselves. Winston Churchill, famous politican, strategist, historian and laureate for the Nobel Prize of Literature wrote that "Some travels may have greater value then 2 years of university studies".
I do this because I feel a NEED to do this. I always did. I'm too curious. I just never had the guts to break with every day life and experience something so completely different. Well, now I will.
I'm packed and ready to go, ready for adventure. I start in Sydney, Australia and will continue my way north along the eastcoast. Next up will be New Zealand or Indonesia. I don't know at this point yet.
I just hope you can understand :-)
P. x
Ironically, most people connect such a trip to thoughts like "running away from something" or "looking for something that you won't find anyway if you can't find it here". What if none of both were really true? What about a genuine fascination to the world around us? What about learning truly being independant in the most difficult situations life has to offer, like having no food or water, or no safe place to sleep? What about learning about new cultures, not just from movies, books or documentaries or a cropped-up-three-weeks-bus-ride-call it how you like it-tourist-vacation.I could come up with tons of reasons, but those two answers just keep coming up in people's minds over and over again.
In reaction to those many strange opinions I've heard over the past few months, here is why I am doing this trip, and not why you THINK I'm doing this trip.
First of all, travelling around the world has become fairly easy these days and much more comfortable. It demands less and less physical requirements, and it is also much less dangerous then it used to be(apart from a few places that is). Even when we are in a dangerous situation, nowadays there are rescue teams and helicopters that will reach us far sooner then anytime in the past decennia was even thinkable. Equipment got much better and lots of technological improvements have been introduced; example: CELLULAR PHONE. Call anyone, anywhere, anytime you want. I don't want to say it's "better" nowadays. It's just different.
"The need for fascination; the desire for the unknown - that, which is on the other side - has always intrigued people curious of the wide world; curious of "something different" - Thor Heyerdahl once wrote.Be it in the bushes of Australia, the Gran Salar in the Atacam Desert or the Kilimanjaro which yearly more than ten thousand people climb nowadays, you will meet tourists representing all professions: students, nurses, lawyers, engineers, secretaries, doctors, bus drivers. It is known that contact with different cultures changes a person; it forms and shapes his views and helps him to better understand the diversity of the world, which in todays' times of conflicts, wars and ignorance is more important than ever before.
Some sceptics say "Know that just leaving as a donkey, will not make you return as a horse." But when leaving on such a trip, one must do so with an open mind ready to register new things, experience new situations and meet new interesting people. The Danish arch-bishop Christian Andersen once wrote "He who travels, lives twice". The famous French geographer Elisée Reclus once said: "A man who travels a lot, is like a a stone carried away thousands of miles by water; its shape becomes more rounded, and its sharp corners disappear. Its' roughness fades away and it becomes much more softer."I think travelling ensures a tremendous educational value, awakening emotions in a person which enable us to experience the beautiful, get to know different people, and most of all, ourselves. Winston Churchill, famous politican, strategist, historian and laureate for the Nobel Prize of Literature wrote that "Some travels may have greater value then 2 years of university studies".
I do this because I feel a NEED to do this. I always did. I'm too curious. I just never had the guts to break with every day life and experience something so completely different. Well, now I will.
I'm packed and ready to go, ready for adventure. I start in Sydney, Australia and will continue my way north along the eastcoast. Next up will be New Zealand or Indonesia. I don't know at this point yet.
I just hope you can understand :-)
P. x
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