First, Happy Birthday to me! ;) Yes, today (the 31st) I turn the big 3-0. While I found that yesterday I was not all that enthusiastic about it being my “last day as a twenty-something”, today I am fine – no more aches and pains than usual, and although I temporarily forgot my login password, I think it’s more the heat than senility.

Updates since my last blog:

Carl and I part II in Sydney after Mom, Dad and Theo left: Maddy, Dave, and Dave’s luggage finally arrived all in one piece, and we enjoyed some more walking around Sydney, visited the zoo, and had a few fun dinners (including homemade fajitas one night). We also hit Manly Beach, a famous one, and rightfully so. There I discovered that despite being a fairly proficient body surfer, I have no surfing talent whatsoever.

We also went on a wine tour (thanks to Chris for organizing). I think this was covered in Carl’s blog – “highlights” included our destroyed fan belt adventures (leading to driving back in the dark), some good wine tasting, and (the winner) koala and kangaroo feeding and petting. (See http://youtube.com/watch?v=CQdC4vWIxDw for a particularly entertaining clip of Matt and the roos). That was a great day. I would have liked to have had more time in Sydney (and with Chris, specifically – fun catching up with the bro). Melbourne was calling though, so we moved on…

Melbourne was fantastic, though as with Sydney, I wish we had another few days – or even a week, in this case. The climbing was fantastic, but unfortunately we only got three days of it. We stayed at the Emu Holiday Park, which was quite something in and of itself (see below), ate extremely well (fajitas, Indian curry, pasta parts I and II), and in general had a great time. Highlights of the Melbourne trip include:

Driving on the left: Quite an experience. In my opinion, definitely made easier by the fact that the steering wheel is on the right (so the whole experience is backwards), but required some verbal self-coaching (“left left left left”) at first.

Climbing: Awesome. The first day was at the Grampians, and despite arriving to find 3 groups of ~50 kids each on our target climbs, we had a great day, getting all 5 of us (Jennie had not yet arrived) up “Waxman”, a great beginner climb. We then found another nice area with another “easy” one and a ~5.8/9. The next day we returned earlier, but still didn’t beat the kids so settled on a third “instructional area” that turned out to be great – I did my first trad lead in about 5 years and quite enjoyed it.

We picked up Jennie that afternoon and the following day went to Arapiles for a multi-pitch climb. “Connifer Crack” ended up being quite a bit harder than we’d anticipated (great job Jennie for getting through that rather stout “warm-up” climb after a year off of climbing!). As expected with any 6-person multi-pitch effort, we had some adventures including a rope-stuck-on-a-tree toss, one particularly difficult crux, and no obvious rappel rings. However, we got through it and in the end I really enjoyed myself. We had one short rappel on our improvised down-climb that was particularly fun – kind of like spelunking.

That was all the climbing we did, and I have to say I have the itch – can’t wait for Thailand and Vietnam!

Kangaroo Tales: Turns out to most Australians, kangaroos are like deer in the US: prevalent pests that make driving at night treacherous. They are, however, amazing animals!

Our first exposure to them happened our first night at Emu Holiday Park. Carl and I went back with Vicki, one of our hosts, to check on some linens. In the course of the walk from our cottage to the house, she told us more about her rescue efforts (they are a refuge for all local animals, except snakes (Vicki doesn’t like snakes)). She generally tries to raise orphaned roos in twos and threes so they have friends and are properly socialized, and right now she has two: Peg and Logan. Peg and Logan were the best ever! Vicki brought them out in their pillow case sacks (where they sleep and in general hang out) and we got to hold them. So cute, alert, energetic, shy…in general, captivating.
Other points of note:
• Logan is a “bag boy” – ever so much more comfortable in his pillow case sack than out of it. We approached them one morning and he and Peg saw us, freaked a bit, and started leaping giant half-circles around the group. Vicki then opened a pillowcase and called Logan, and he tumbled in head-first in a summersault at full tilt. Very funny.
• Peg was orphaned in a car accident (like them all as far as I can tell) in which her mother was killed and her right front paw was broken. She needed surgery to put some wires into it, a surgery that was quoted at up to $1600. Vicki splinted the foot as a temporary fix, then called around to try to get someone to do it for cheaper. She finally found a place on the other side of Melbourne that would do it for free, so she packed Peg into the car for the 6-hour drive there. X-rays showed, however, that Peg’s foot had mended well under Vicki’s split, so no surgery was needed – go Vicki! Peg was still pretty stressed by the trip, however, and got sick. She and Logan are now both on antibiotics, though, and doing quite well. Vicki says that all told it takes ~$400 to raise an orphaned roo until it is ready for release.
• Vicki and Alan have been doing their rescue efforts for 9 years and have never turned away an orphaned roo. (That’s what they mostly have, though they also get wallabies, emus, wombats, etc.). They have thus raised many roos, many of which come back to help with the next batch. For example, Cal and Jack, who were released a few months ago, come back about once a week and take Peg and Logan out for the night, then bring them back in the morning. When one of their roos gets pregnant for the first time, the female comes back to show their "parents", knocking on the front door with her front paws, and then when Vicki or Alan opens the door opening her pouch to show them.
• Male roos watch the little ones too, though the joey of one of their graduates was recently left with a young buck longer than the buck cared for, so he knocked on the front door with the little one in tow, and when Vicki opened it he took off and left the little one with her. Males, incidentally, can stand well over 6 feet when they’re full grown – huge!
• In the roo hierarchy, wallabies are way uncool, with the swamp wallaby being the lowest of the low; many other roos and wallabies won’t even acknowledge a swampie. Why are they so disrespected? “They fart (“faht”) a lot”, per Vicki.
• Roos are incredible animals. According to Vicki (some of these facts are so amazing that I would probably double-check them, but here they are nonetheless): the females mate once, but carry up to three embryos at one time. Male and female embryos must be kept at different temperatures in the body, and through this process the mom knows the sex of her embryos and can choose which one to have when (usually they have one at a time, but that's not a rule). The roo is the size of a jellybean when it’s born, at which point it climbs into the mom’s pouch.

The roo theme in general was a highlight of Melbourne. There were, however, some darker sides to it. The first night we had a near miss – I was driving, the road was through a national forest and very windy, and it was dusk/dark. I slowed down to about 20kph and we were all working to spot them (all told there were more than 15 sitings). One little guy nearly did it though, jumping about 3 feet in front of the passenger side bumper with no warning. Fortunately, I was “covering the brake” like we learned in drivering school and although everyone got quite a fright, no one was hurt. A few days later, however, as Carl was doing 20kph, a tour bus zoomed by us going 4 times that speed, and before its tail lights were out of site I spotted one on the side, looking strange at first, and then obviously hit a few seconds later. We make brief eye contact, and then as a group decided that we didn’t have enough information on diseases and aggressiveness to investigate in person, so we went straight to Alan and gave a report. He came back 45 minutes later with small good news: no joeys involved. However, the young male was dead when he arrived. Spread the word: Australia Adventure Tours is bad!!!!

We saw some great sites and found a nice hotel where we enjoyed a night of relaxing, wine and cards. Highlights from the sites include:

Travel Stresses: Turns out Jet Star has a weight limit of 20 kgs per person (not per bag). Upon our first check-in, Carl and I were 27kg over, subject to an additional $100 charge each time we flew! Fortunately, perhaps because of the genuine shock on our faces or because the Chapmans had just checked in 15kgs each, we were able to put a lot more weight in our carry-ons and escaped the first charge. On our way to Bali, knowing that this would be an potential issue, we split up the weight more amongst the group. At first weighing, we were 8kgs over, but we asked the woman to redo it zeroing out for the plastic bins that they put all backpacks in. She politely asserted that it wouldn’t make a difference, but it did actually remove 6kgs, and with me carrying one of my clothes bags on, we made it through. Unfortunately, however, 5 minutes later my $50 awesome leatherman and our first aid kit scissors were confiscated in security – oversights from transferring into our carry-ons weight that would otherwise have been checked. I am still mourning the loss of my knife, but am trying to get over it.

Bali: So now we are here in Bali, an obviously southeast Asia country in the sense that our backpacker area is jam packed with hawkers of various cheap wares, tons of good food, tons of sketchy food, and relentless sun. The beachfront in our area is as long as I have ever seen, and later today I look forward to finishing my book (My Sister’s Keeper, which I started about 24 hours ago – amazing read), going in the ocean and getting a massage! Happy birthday indeed…

Tomorrow we fly to Yogyakarta (a town on another island that is rumored to have incredible temples). We return Saturday night for another day and a half of beach lounging, and then it's on to Bankok and then Chaing Mai. I can tell that this trip is going to go very quickly!!!

written by  GoBlue on May 31, 2007 from Bali, Indonesia
from the travel blog: Joc's Journeys
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOC!!! Your journey is looking absolutely awesome! Pictures are fantastic. Have a wonderful day. You're in my thoughts & prayers. Love, Mom

written by  Lynda Addie on May 31, 2007

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Happy Birthday, Joc!!! Welcome to thirtysomething. Looks like you guys are having an amazing time over there. Safe travels.

written by  snide on June 1, 2007

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Happy Birthday Joc!! 30 is the new 20 you know...safe travels! Miss you guys!!

-Buy a Vowel

written by  sue v on June 2, 2007

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The ocean road pictures remind me of La Portada in Chile- almost the same vantage point, and similar structure (though I guess these are more Pillars than Portals).

written by  Theo Ludwick on August 8, 2007

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