Life in Australia

Thurs - 5/4/06

Well tomorrow I take off for Sydney and I haven’t written about Melbourne yet! Figured I should get to it before I fall ever farther back than I already am.
(I went over a month ago)

Melbourne was great. I stayed with Andy and his housemates in a house outside the city. Andy was one of the musicians I met at WOMAD, who played in a great funky Latin style band called LABJACD. The house was just a 10 min train ride outside the city in a suburbia area. From the time I first got to the house, after MANY drinks (to be touched on later), I was blown away by it. Not because it was so nice, but the character of the crap that occupied it, and the backyard. And while I may be coming off like the sarcastic person I can surely be, I was honestly loving it! Got a few shots in that night before hitting the couch, and then I spent a good hour or so shooting the house and yard the following morning, accompanied by Andy's friendly cat. It was nice to have the company, esp after my several months away from my dear Sadie...

So… upon first arriving in Melbourne and meeting up with Andy (after a train ride), we hit the bars. A shower would have been nice, as would have been putting my thousands of dollars of gear away for the evening. But instead I rolled into the bar with it all on my back. Luckily his girlfriend worked at the bar so she threw my bag in the attic over the bar and well, I had to shut-up and be trustworthy, or else have a rough night of an aching back and pissed off people bumping into it. So I obliged. And at that point it all started. Sitting at the bar with Andy and his gf, (free) Jack n Coke in hand and enjoying the surroundings, the new city, new bar, etc., when a beautiful Sheila steps up to the bar and asks what I’m drinking. “Uh, a Jack n Coke.” She’s holding a tray full of Eclipse gum that she’s giving away for company advertising. (There are many others around the bar working with her as well.) She proceeds to ask if we want shots. "Sure!" (And for those of you at home who know I stopped doing shots, well again, new city, new bar, beautiful girl, and free shots… you make the call.) So she orders up a Jack n Coke and 3 shots, passes them off, and after a little chit-chat, she continues on her way. At this point, I’ve been off the plane for about an hour, I’ve got a huge bag of gear in the attic, I’m 3 drinks deep after about 15 min at the bar, and I plan to photograph Martin Martini and the Bone Palace Orchestra down the street in about an hour or two. Oh yea, and I haven’t opened my wallet yet. …So I finish drink #1 and as I’m working on #2, I get called out by Andy gf’s b/c I’m drinking too slow… thing is, I’m still a drink ahead of her thanks to my Eclipse friend. So she orders another round, this time a tall drink. Finish drink #2, and unfort it was a bit too quick and I puked all over the bar!!! Ha ha, just kidding, no I didn’t, I moved onto #3. ; ) I decided to leave Andy and his gf alone and went upstairs to check out the lounge and band. They were good and I got to relax a bit finally on the plush couches. As I did just that, the girls continued to visit, drop off more gum, make some small-talk, and hand off beers. Still no money spent, but talk about being “spent”. …A bit later I decided it was time to move on and so Andy and I headed down to the Rainbow Hotel to see Martin Martini. This is the band that I saw at the Adelaide Fringe 3 times in a week and fell in love with their live performances, so I was psyched to photograph them. You may also remember me mentioning that I planned on stalking (well not really, but for humor’s sake – stalking CAN be funny if you’re just joking - don’t anyone go worrying now!) the violin player when I was in Melbourne. Well I did get the chance to chat with Xani (that’s her), and during that time ask her out a good 5 or 10 times for the 2 nights I'd be around, but came up short each time. Probably better off since she’s just a young-in to my surprise. 18 to be exact, but she surely looks older than 18! And well, after a few more drinks (yes, bar-keep, I’m with the band ; )), I caught a cab back to Andy’s, where he returned to a while earlier. …All in all a good night. Dropped around $10, saw some great music, got good and loaded, took some great photos, met Xani, saw Fitzroy…

Martin Martini and the Bone Palace Orchestra

Diafrix

LABJACD Andy (who I stayed with)

And as I mention Fitzroy, it’s the part of town northeast of the city centre where a lot of the artsy community resides and parties. I spent every night of my trip in Fitzroy seeing different live bands (above) and loved it. St Kilda is the other artsy part of Melbourne, which is south of the city, on the ocean. Also a beautiful area, as is the trolley ride from the city down to St Kilda. The city itself is very clean and well laid out in a grid formation. It is full of alley-ways that contain a lot of cafes, record stores, clothing shops, etc, and are full of spray-paint artwork on the side of the buildings. It was nice to just bum around the city and try to take it all in. I didn’t make it a point to do a lot of the touristy things (museums, etc), but just stuck to walking around and exploring. My last night, I went up to the top of the Observation Tower and took photos of the city. Keeping the camera & tripod steady in the strong wind was no easy feat. Most people wouldn’t even stand outside, it was funny.

From what I’ve seen so far of Adelaide and Melbourne, this Fitzroy area seems the most attractive to me if I were ever to consider living here.

For Melbourne, Northcote, and St Kilda images...

http://www.shrubin.com/pages/LandscapeNature/AUS/060330_Melbourne/060330_MEL_1.html

After a few days in the city though I rented a car and headed out on a solo trip down the Great Ocean Road. This road follows the coast west of the city, and if continued on, would eventually (9 hrs maybe?) hit Adelaide. The first part of the drive isn’t on the coast, but once you hit the coast (after about an hour) it’s absolutely beautiful and is considered one of the most picturesque drives in the world. Unfort it was quite cloudy over my 2 days on the road, but the various landscapes still packed quite a punch. From sandy beaches, to rock-face cliffs, gorges, seaside ports, and even rainforest, I was kept extremely busy in an effort to see as much as possible before catching the plane back to Adelaide. I drove out west to Port Campbell the first day/night and caught a great sunset at the 12 Apostles (below). As I pulled up I could see the sun bursting through the clouds and so I did my best to haul some serious ass, while carrying tripod and all my gear, down a path some 200 yds long to the lookout station. And there she was, the Apostles and a lovely sunset! …Following the sunset I headed down the road to the hostel I had booked the day before, got some food and beers, downloaded cards, charged batteries, showered, and got some sleep.

Sunset at the Apostles Sunrise at the Apostles

Up at around 5am for the sunrise, I packed up quietly and was again off in the darkness. I made it back to the Apostles for the sunrise and set up on the opposite side from the night before. Nothing too crazy, but it made for a pretty early morning scene. Following sunrise I backtracked a bit to the Loch Ard Gorge. It was spectacular to see all the separate gorges, which sunk numerous ships back in the day. From one of the park info signs:

Captain Gibb set full sail to turn the Loch Ard away from danger, but wind and current carried the ship towards the cliffs. Sails were then lowered
and anchors dropped, but they dragged across the ocean floor.

In a final desperate attempt, the anchors were cut and sails again raised. The ship began to make headway; nearly clearing the cliffs, but the bow
struck a shallow reef and stuck fast.

Water flooded into the cabins. With each swell, the yardarms smashed against the cliff face bringing pieces of mast and rock crashing down. Waves
swept across the deck, hampering attempts to launch the lifeboats.

Paralysed with fear, the passengers clung to one another and, amidst their screams and cries, the ship slipped into the silent depths below.

The forceful nature of the water in this area constantly shapes the coastline, destroying and creating more Apostles (there are only 7 these days, but you can see more being separated from the mainland). In another location, the Blowhole was the site of 'an eerie purple light'.

After the wreck of the Loch Ard, eleven bodies of the fifty-four on board floated in the waters below.

At night following the wreck, the Blowhole glowed with an eerie purple light from wax vestas (phosphorous matches) washed in from the cargo.

The Blowhole is connected to the sea by a long narrow tunnel. When heavy seas are running, waves compress air trapped in the tunnel and enter the
cavern with a loud roar.

The tunnel extends 100 metres inland from here, and is gradually being enlarged by the force of the sea and attack from seeping rainwater.

It was rather crazy to be walking along this trail and just off to the side is this massive hole in the ground with water violently crashing below!!! As part of the Loch Ard, there used to exist a stretch of land called the London Bridge (not an actual bridge, but land connecting the mainland with an (Apostle) island type rock), until a few years back when it collapsed, leaving 2 people stranded out at the other end of the bridge. Fortunately they were safely rescued by helicopter.

The Blowhole ??? Falls (lost the map with the name... doh!)

The Caves at Loch Ard (feeds the Blowhole above)                   Mait's Rest Rainsforest (below and right)

And for the remainder of the Great Ocean Road images...

http://www.shrubin.com/pages/LandscapeNature/AUS/060401_GreatOceanRd/060401_GOR_1.html

After spending quite a lot of time there, I continued on in an effort to hit the rainforest and waterfalls on the way back. Unfort one of the waterfalls was closed but the others were fantastic and I’m glad I made it to them. The rainforest was great as well, although my time was quite limited. Oh yea, and my camera with long tele-photo lens didn’t like being up on the tripod, some 4 feet high, and so it took a nose-dive into the dirt! One of the girls on the trail gasped as she saw it fall. I was shooting with my other camera at the time and gave an “oh shit!” glance over the shoulder before continuing to shoot. Eventually picked up the camera from out of the dirt, brushed it off, and kept shooting. No harm, no foul.

Finished up and running low on time I jumped back on the road and headed to the airport which was around 3 hours away. Making great time, I hit the most terrible traffic I’ve seen in a long time! Stressed that I’d miss my flight, I saw 2 girls sitting on the edge of an overpass, looking down on the traffic. I waved as I slowly drove past, stuck in traffic and getting more and more aggravated. I could see how much my simple wave struck the girl and she very excitedly smiled and waved back. And my aggravation quickly wore a smile. Thanks girls.