Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 04:05:49 -0800 (PST)
Subject: The circle is complete...
17 days, 7 hours, 45 minutes, and 8587 kilometers later, I'm back to where I
started -- Brisbane, Queensland (pronounced Bris-bin, or simply Brissie. but
not Queensie.)
Lets see..... last time I emailed was Jan 1st night... since then I've taken 0
photographs, and driven about 970 km. And I've found out that even though it's
only 970km from Sydney to Brisbane, its better to do that in 2 days instead of
just 1.
I left Sydney (actually, the suburb of Penshurst where I was staying) on Sunday
morning, and had heavy traffic coming out of the city -- all the people
returning home after the new year. Here's one journal entry from that day:
"
11:59 AM/7646km = Turned right on Hwy 1 --
bumber-to-bumber-to-bumber-to-bumber-to-bumber-to-bumber etc traffic....
"
Two hours ten minutes and 132 km after that, I was at my destination for the
evening -- the oh-so-boring town of Newcastle, NSW. The rest of the day was
spent repacking all my stuff and uploading the last 6 days of photographs
(since Melbourne) to the webpage... no, they're not all linked just yet, only
uploaded. Also watched the 1st day of the 2nd cricket test match between
Australia-Pakistan, going on live at Sydney.
-----------------------------------------------
Trip Journal entries continued:
MONDAY -- JANUARY 3, 2005
"The Day Before"
10:25 AM = checked out; 32903 total km; 7788 trip km. On to Brissie! $54.01 =
Gas-n-Fantas-n-TimTam.
(End quote)
I'd never had Tim Tam's before but had heard about them. Gooey, chocolate-y,
wafers with different types of chocolate (dark, light, etc)...
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... delicious! A
little messy to eat while driving, but simply delicious! I finished the box
before the end of the day.
(start Journal quote)
2:30 PM = Left [Mobil gas station] while eating another Nestle's Maxibon ice
cream.
(end quote)
(Start quote)
7:15 PM/6:15 PM = 8479 trip km = Back to Queensland!! 13 days and 6 hours and 0
minutes and 6094 km after leaving it
(End quote)
This area on the New South Wales--Queensland state border was very pretty.
There's a mountain highway and several parallel roads that go along the
coastline... I was alternating between the two. On the main motorway
(=freeway), there are a lot of low hills, with the road curving along on top --
excellent driving road! And with occasional glimpses of the ocean with Great
Barrier Reef to the right and taller mountains to the left (that was the Great
Dividing Range I think.... everything's Great around here). The ocean road (not
the "great ocean road" -- that's in Victoria) had a lot of loooooong beaches,
but I didn't really stop anywhere, or even take any pictures -- my camera was
in the trunk and I didn't bother to take it out, just enjoy the scenery for
myself!
And that brought me into the place where I started this trip -- Brisbane!
(Start journal quote)
7:38 PM = Arrived at last stop of Trip Section #1: Quality Inn Airport
International @ Brisbane (Hamilton). 33,699 total km... 8584 TOTAL TRIP KM's...
(so far).
Nope, that wasn't it! (that was Quality Inn Airport Heritage).
7:48 PM = 33,702 total km; Arrived at the right one.... Quality Inn Airport
International. 8587 trip km.
(End quote)
There are two Quality Inn's on this road and so close to each other!!! When I
went to the first one they didn't have my reservation, but they guy said
there's another hotel down the road -- 300 yards from here -- and maybe thats
the one I want. Well, "300 yards" was about the right number, but because of
U-turn restrictions, it took me 3 km of driving to get there!
Anyway, so now, 8587 km after the start of the trip, tonight's the last night.
At least the Australia section... Trip's not over yet though.
Tomorrow I'm meeting another chat friend (Max D., for those of you who know
him) in Brisbane, then on to the airport for my flight back to the northern
hemisphere!
About this trip:
This evening as I was approaching Brisbane city I checked the outside
temperature (car has a gauge) -- 29 C. Perfect! I put all the windows down,
turned the A/C off, increased the volume on my "#18" CD that was playing,
turned the cruise control off, and took over the driving, sitting back and
thinking about this whole trip <<<<<< a sort of a ritual at the end of every
long roadtrip ..
Compared to Europe, Australia is a lot more convenient to drive in, although
not as convenient as in the U.S. -- the road signs are a lot better than in
Europe, but there aren't too many freeways, and the speed limits are STRICTLY
enforced by hundreds of hidden cameras on the highways and at red lights --
they even take your picture on the yellow if you're speeding through them to
catch the light. So there's 0 tolerance on the speeding, and the limits are
also low -- 100 kph if you're lucky, 110 kph if you're EXTREMELY lucky. In
towns, 50 or lower -- strictly enforced by cameras. Only Northern Territory
doesn't have a speed limit on open highways -- but then they have a lot of
roadkill to manuever around. So that part is not so good. But its very easy to
find your way around with a relatively decent map -- I've never gotten lost
this entire trip.
There are also some things I've done on this trip that I've almost never done
on any other roadtrip in the past.... and other things that I've done on those
trips that I never did on this one. And no, I'm not telling what those are!
heh... but anyway, the point being, this one has been unique in many ways. As
for the sights, they've been really varied -- oceanside roads, desert outback,
hillside scenery, and of course the cities.. Melbourne, Sydney. I wont count
Adelaide. and Brisbane sightseeing is tomorrow. Sydney -- and especially the
new years eve celebrations -- has been the highlight of this whole trip!
So far.....
Ok, that's too much thinking for 1 evening. Time for the England-South Africa
cricket game that they're showing right now on TV.... SA is 372/7. Au revoir..
(btw, next email will likely be on the 4th or 5th from my second destination
this trip)
No pictures were taken on either the 2nd or 3rd.