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a travel blog by ECRadventure

Just a little trip. A little trip of freedom to do what you choose, think and feel with passion and creativity, to love, to live, to be.
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Ko Tao, Thailand



permalink written by  ECRadventure on November 15, 2009 from Ko Tao, Thailand
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Ko Tao... the island of Luis and Baz

Ko Tao, Thailand


Our view for six days

Ko Tao (turtle island) is a beautiful small island a short 35min flight and 3 hour ferry from Bangkok. We thought, we can’t be in Thailand and not see the islands. The unfortunate or fortunate depending on how you look at it, is that there are so many islands and not enough time for us to see them all. So instead of moving all over the place, we decided to spend six days on this little island (21 sq km). The ferry was a bit late, but as promised the place we were staying at was actually there to pick us up! Initially we thought that it wasn’t too far and we could walk but we were so wrong! All the taxis on the island are trucks and there’s a reason for that. Only the main town has paved roads, the rest is dirt roads and you need 4 wheel drive to get anywhere, especially because of the super-steep roads, which are all partially washed away from the yearly monsoon.

It’s funny because as soon as we arrived at the ‘resort’ we were staying at we felt a bit like we wanted to leave and find a place in town. There was literally no one around. We had a private beach, no one on it. There are palm trees, hammocks and clear clean water. There is no actual hotel building but many small bungalows at different price ranges, no hot water, no AC, but there is a fan which we really appreciated. Our bungalow even had screens on the windows so we didn’t need a mosquito net. There was a restaurant and a café a bit down the beach. The next 6 days can be summarised by a few words: relaxing, eating, sleeping and hanging out.


Snorkle snorkle

The treasure we found while snorkeling

We snorkeled, went on a couple of dives with the dive shop that was part of the resort and went into town twice. As it turns out, we only had one night of solitude, before a series of other people started to show up at the hotel (the Coral View). We met fantastic people at our resort, Luis & Baz, Mel and Hanna, Douglas and Kirsten. They really made our stay on Ko Tao wonderful.


Fire Poi dancers entertaining the crowd


Ordering dinner in town
We especially had a great time with Baz and Luis. They were such light hearted funny guys and we’re so very looking forward to potentially meeting up with them again later in our trip (Red Sea Diving!!)

Baz and Luis enjoying their last sip of the bucket

After almost a week there it was hard to leave, we're off to Phuket in the south of Thailand our springboard to our diving trip.



permalink written by  ECRadventure on November 16, 2009 from Ko Tao, Thailand
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Similan Islands... 15 dives in 3 days!!

Similan Islands, Thailand


Ewa and Chad, about 20m below the suface!

Just 84 km northwest of Phuket's Patong Beach lies a gateway to another world. Koh Similan is one of the best-known island groups in the Andaman Sea, largely because of the wonders that wait beneath the clear blue waters that surround it. Generally counted among the 10 most interesting dive areas in the world, this little archipelago has also become a favourite destination for yachts, tours and divers. "Similan" is derived from the Malay sembilan, and means "nine". Each of the Similan Islands has a number as well as a name.

The conditions for coral growth are ideal, with a minimum sea temperature of about 28oC and exceptionally clear waters. More than 200 species of hard coral alone have so far been identified in this area and these islands have the greatest concentration of reef fish in Thai waters. We’ve read that there's more variety in the Similans in terms of sea life and bottom topography than you'll find in most other dive destinations around the world. The Similans have almost everything - coral walls, big rocks, huge sea fans and barrel sponges, caves, and swim-throughs (we did some, it was amazing - and scary!). We did our live aboard with West Coast Divers in Patong because Dave recommended it and we trust his judgement (most of the time). There are so many dive shops to choose from it becomes a huge hassle just to make a choice since you never know what you’re going to get and it takes a while to go to each dive shop and talk to the people there.


More tropical fish from the Similans!
The trip started on November 20th, Ewa’s Birthday. We left the dive shop at 5pm and arrived at the boat at 8pm and did a debriefing as to how the diving would be organised. We were doing our Advanced Open Water Certification so we had to complete a number of dives including a Deep Dive (down to 30meters), a Navigation Dive and a Night Dive. Ewa was a bit freaked out about the deep dive because she didn’t feel comfortable diving deep but she thought what the hell, one dive is doable. That was until Andy the dive instructor told everyone who was on the boat (there were only 6 of us) that whoever was doing the Advanced Open Water Certification would have to do the deep dive first thing in the morning! Now she was freaked out. Andy gave us our text books and that was that. Everyone started mingling and chatting and dinner was served. We bought a bottle of wine on Koh Tao and saved it for Ewas birthday. Wine in Asia is pretty expensive since it is heavily taxed and imported. You would think that since Thailand is close to Australia…one of the biggest wine makers in the WORLD…that it would be reasonably priced…but you would be wrong! During dinner Chad made an announcement that it was Ewa’s birthday…and everyone wished her a happy birthday, it was nice. Not even 10 minutes later the chef came up from the kitchen area below and had a small brownie birthday cake for Ewa with candles on it and everything! The lights went out and everyone sang her Happy Birthday, she really appreciated it. We found out later that once they heard it was her birthday, they ran to the store and bought the cake and candles since we were still docked, it was very sweet of them!


NEMO!
The next 3 days were filled with diving and sleeping. We did 5 dives the first day! The deep dive was great - the water was so clear that you couldn’t even tell the difference between being at 12 meters or 30! We sat on the sandy bottom at 30 meters and watched as Andy showed us a coca cola can that now looked brown at this depth rather than red. When you go deeper under water different colors from the natural light are absorbed the deeper you go and colors like red are the first to disappear. We didn’t stay at 30 meters for long, since the deeper you are the more oxygen you use up. There was a slight pressure Ewa felt in her chest which is also normal when you go to this depth but other than that it was just like diving at any other depth we have been to before. We slowly worked our way up to a more comfortable depth and just did a fun dive for the remainder. Diving in this area has been the best diving we have done so far. The water is so clear, there are hundreds of types of fish around, its just simply amazing. No matter where you turn you see schools of fish, an abundance of coral and we were fortunate because most of the time we had the dive site to ourselves. The rest of the dives for this day were just fun dives. We had to complete a night dive and a navigation dive in order to get our certification. While we were on the boat we decided to a few specialties as well: AWARE Fish Id and the Boat Dive.


Leopard Shark
On the second day we completed the Navigation part of the certification which was a lot of fun for us. When you dive more frequently you realize quite quickly that there is a real problem with communication under water. Things that you want to share with your diving buddy (Chad and Ewa are diving buddies - you never dive alone) can become a frustrating guessing game underwater. The regular symbols underwater are very basic things like: go up, go down, I’m out of air(pretty important one) are helpful but not enough. So during the Navigation dive we were given two underwater compasses and had to navigate underwater a straight line, a square for a given distance and a route using only landmarks underwater. The fun part about this was that one person was paying attention to the compass (obviously Chad!) and the other person (Ewa) was counting fin strokes because that is how you judge distance underwater. For the square route we had to end up within 5 meters of our instructor when we got back to him, we passed! It was fun doing it together even though Chad really needed to trust Ewa a little more when it came to being accurate with the distance haha.


Turtles!
The next obstacle in our certification was done that same evening, our first night dive! Night diving is truly an totally different experience. You get a torch (flashlight) to use while you are under water and diving in the complete darkness. It is a strange sensation to say the least. In the dark, the underwater environment seems even more so as a very different unexplored territory. Different creatures come out of their holes at night, different plant life blooms and it feels like you are truly on the moon. Since there is no sunlight to brighten up the environment you see a lot more grey in the sand and on the bottom, but because you have a torch the colors once you shine your light on something are so much more vivid and bright. Part of the night dive was also night navigation. Freaky! Separating from the instructor in the dark, honestly at times you feel like you’re five years old again and someone turned off your night light and you’re freaking out! We completed our underwater navigation without a glitch and even experienced bioluminescence underwater…pretty damn cool.


Studying for our advanced open water certification

Being on the boat for 4 days straight we were quite surprised how quickly time went and at the same time how much diving we did. It was hectic at times and very tiring. Ewa was also pre-fasting during the trip so she wasn’t eating any meat and “trying” to eat as best she could, it wasn’t easy. Once we got off the boat and came back to Patong we were exhausted. It has been a long time that we have been so physically drained. Sleeping on the boat was a bit frustrating at times since we are not used to the rocking, the noises and diving so often, so we were quite sleep deprived as well. For the next few days we were intoxicated….with nitrogen ahha. Nothing made sense, sheer exhaustion, no energy, it was interesting. We got back to Patong on the 24th and Ewa was leaving on her detox retreat on the morning of November 28th for a week long fast. Chad has one more day and night before he leaves to go to his Buddhist Silent Retreat for 10 days. We have not been apart this entire trip. The last seven months has been spent in true Honeymoon fashion- together 24/7! This is going to be a very interesting time for both of us. We have the opportunity to take time and reflect on all that has happened and really sit and think on our own what it is that we want from each other but especially from ourselves.


permalink written by  ECRadventure on November 24, 2009 from Similan Islands, Thailand
from the travel blog: ECRadventure's Travel Blog
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Phuket... retreats and time apart

Phuket, Thailand


Last moment together before Ewa left for her detox, we would be appart for two weeks

We left our friends in Ko Tao and headed back on the ferry to Ko Samui for our flight to Phuket. Little did we know, but the rain that we had over the last few days at the coral view was the tail end of another hurricane in the Philippines. We got to enjoy 3-4 meter swells on the catamaran that we took between Ko Tao and Ko Samui - it was quite the ride! We arrived in Phuket after our short flight to find out that Phuket is run by a Taxi / Tuk-Tuk mafia – there’s no way to get a fair deal for a ride on Phuket island. They over charged significantly, (compared to what it should cost in Thailand) so it’s best to take the public bus, which runs only until 17:30. Just be careful, it may not run from or to where you would like to go.

We settled into our little guest house, where we paid 1000 Baht ($33 cdn) for the night. Turns out we paid this for a little tiny room that was literally only the width of our bed and had ~3.5 feet of clearance at the end of the bed before it ended in the stall sized bathroom, where you get to shower over the toilet (the norm in Asia). Awesome. Later we checked out the city went to the diving shop and wandered about the city. The Patong area is really just a beach, two main streets filled with touristy shops selling all the same same, restaurants, dive shops and old white guys toting Thai women on their arms. We had no time before the live a board to enjoy the city and really only had a few days after the diving before we were leaving for our retreats, so we may have missed some of the finer points of the area. We needed a place to use as a home base for coming back to before/after our diving and our retreats, and with Patong so central to it all, it just made sense to spend the extra time here.


Lounging at the Pool at Atsumi
One thing we learned finally is why the Asian men walk around with their shirts pulled exposing their stomachs. Even though this looks incredibly stupid, it has practical real-world applications. In hot humid countries you sweat. Turns out the longer you are here, the more you sweat from strange places. By the time we reached Thailand, Chad had discovered that he can sweat A LOT from his stomach. Strange fact – you would have never learned this living in Canada. But… not once did Chad partake in the Asian custom of pulling his shirt up over his stomach, to a point just below the nipples, simply to cool down.


Our hotel room at the Fairmont
Before we left for our diving live a board, we managed to get a great walk-in deal on the hotel Aspery, where we paid 1000 Baht a night for a proper hotel, with a decent bed, a semi-normal bathroom and access to the roof-top swimming pool. A much better upgrade than the guesthouse we just left. The rest of the time we wandered the streets, tasting local dishes from the street vendors (Pad Thai, mango sticky rice, fried chicken, tom yum soup, spicy papaya salad, fresh fruit / veggie juices, more coconut coated peanuts) going to the movies, working out and just wasting away the days. After all of our back and forth from Patong we were off to Singapore to relax in major comfort at the Fairmont and to see Mark and Sara (Chad’s friends) from Innisfail!

OUR RETREATS!


The Detox Center

Ewa -

I left for my detox retreat on November 28th and was coming back to Phuket on Dec 5th, a full week before Chad was due back. A car picked me up at the hotel and it was a scenic half an hour drive to where the retreat was. The detox was fasting for one week with half a week or more as a pre-fast that I did on our live a board, as much as I could. No meat, eating as raw food as possible, no coffee, no alcohol and no sugar. The morning I got there they took an alkaline test on my saliva to determine how acidic my system was. I couldn’t drink or eat anything before that. I was really looking forward to this retreat, to relax, get away from the stress of travelling- haha just kidding. It was time to do something nice for my body and my mind. I didn’t eat any solid food for a week. I had 4 fibre shakes, 4 sets of vitamins, 2 coconut waters every day and a vegetable broth at night. For the first few days it was a bit difficult but also interesting because of the fibre shakes I wasn’t very hungry. The staff planned activities every morning evening you could do, but if you didn’t feel like it you could just nap or do your own thing. I chose to do as many as I could, there were a few that I struggled through because I didn’t have the energy but I did them anyway. We did beach walks, mountain walks and yoga in the mornings. The evening activities were all over the place from guided meditation, tai chi, yoga, Muay Tai boxing and talks on nutrition. I enjoyed it so much. After seven days though, I was ready to get back to reality and to the eating world. After seven days of nothing, you start dreaming of all of the things you want. Simple things like solids! A salad, some chilli peppers, a tom yum soup! The only thing I could have for three days after the fast was pure raw food so most of my cravings were off limits, including coffee  . That is one thing I missed a lot! An Americano….mmmm. I waited the three days to have it, and it was delicious.


Tiny little Buddhas meditating in the grass at Atsumi

Chad -

I have thought of doing a silent retreat for a very long time, and Ewa surprised me with arranging our trip to make sure we would be in Thailand in time for me to go to one of the more renowned retreats. I was up early in the morning to catch my minivan to head back East across Thailand to Chaya, which is 2/3 of the way back to Ko Tao. The minivan was an excellent experience, getting to spend 4 hours in an over-stuffed mini-van next to a vomiting woman - a great introduction to extreme patience. The first night I changed my plans and stayed at the main monastery in Suan Mok, rather than in a hotel in Surat Thani. This first night, I slept in a large communal room, on a concrete slab as my bed and with a wooden pillow. We were allowed a small bamboo mat to sleep on, and we all were given a blanket. The next day, early in the morning, the retreat started at the International Hermitage, just 1.5 km from the main monastery. There were about 90 other participants who were doing the silent retreat as well. The accommodation was the same as at the monastery, but at the hermitage, we each got our own room. There were no showers, only a large cistern filled with water, from which you took a ladle and poured the water onto yourself. The daily routine started with a 4am wake-up bell followed by a rotation of sitting meditations, walking meditations and Dhamma talks (Buddhist lessons). Breakfast at 8am and lunch at noon were thrown into the mix, along with one morning yoga session, all for 10 days straight. There was no conversation what so ever. Toss in the introduction day and the day after the retreat and you have practically 12 days of silent meditation time for yourself. The retreat was an amazing experience. I was able to learn a lot about my physical and mental limits. More importantly, I was able to explore some deep thoughts…. by Jack Handy (… hahaha, Mom and Dad that’s a Saturday Night Live reference for you) and it allowed me time to re-evaluate the path my life had been leading me down. By the end of the retreat, I was more than ready to head back to Phuket to scoop my bride back into my arms. We’ve been living inseparable for the past 9 months and the 2 weeks apart were beginning to be a little too much, especially not having any contact with each other in a different country.


permalink written by  ECRadventure on November 28, 2009 from Phuket, Thailand
from the travel blog: ECRadventure's Travel Blog
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Singapore...5 stars all the way!

Singapore, Singapore


Christmas in Singapore, evening walk on Orchard Road

We arrived in Singapore, greeted by helpful English speaking airport staff that helped us buy our metro cards. We got on the cheap metro and went straight to the Fairmont hotel. Thank-you Natalia, Dave, Ela, Miro, Tanya, Marty, Agnes, Ewa, Andrew, Mags, Grace, Rudy & Rose!! We were counting down the days to take advantage of the wonderful wedding present from our friends. The Fairmont in Singapore is a 5-star, amazing hotel. This was our goodbye to Asia and ironically we sent it western style instead of eastern, but we can’t complain. We pretty much stayed in the hotel our entire time in Singapore, lapping in the luxury.


View from the Fairmont Singapore - 16th floor
We did manage to get out a little to meet up with Chad’s friends from Innisfail for a couple of visits. Great to see you Mark and Sara!! We got to hear about some of their travels, which gave us more ideas of where to go; so many places to see and so little time! We also visited little India and did some small Christmas shopping. Strange Singapore fact: Singapore doesn’t have weathermen or forecasts because it’s practically +29-33 every day with a 40% chance of rain. It rained nearly every day we were there and especially when we actually tried to go out and see or do something. Which, in turn made us head back into the hotel to take advantage our 5 star luxury (not trying to brag, but yea, it was that good ). We may be back to Singapore in the next few weeks/months since it’s a great hub for transportation around the region, which will give us another chance to better see the city. For now, we finally decided on our travel plans for the next weeks. Plane ticket in hand, we’re off for Perth, Australia to pick up a caravan and drive across Oz!


Dinner at Indochine with Mark and Sara



permalink written by  ECRadventure on December 14, 2009 from Singapore, Singapore
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Perth..viruses, theft and lost time

Perth, Australia


Australian Flag

Australia! A continent that has its own way of doing everything: The animals, plants and customs are different here than anywhere in the world. They have marsupials, the outback aaannd they put Vegemite on toast. Now if anyone has ever tasted Vegemite, you might agree that putting it anywhere near your mouth and enjoying it is pretty unique. We were excited to visit a place neither one of us has been to yet and to experience all the amazing things it has to offer. Beaches, vineyards, seafood, diving the barrier reef and a road trip from Perth to Sydney.
We flew from Singapore via Kuala Lampur in Malaysia to Perth. The first leg of the trip was easy and we landed in Kuala Lampur and had several hours to kill until our next flight left for Oz. Unfortunately for us the airport in KL is a barren waste land. We were in a security area and couldn’t leave because we didn’t want to pay for the visa upon arrival, for only a few hours to leave the airport. So we settled into a restaurant where we had bad overpriced coffees and food. It was so cold in the airport and we couldn’t escape the cold and we didn’t have any of our warmer clothes with us. We were trying to kill as much time as possible by walking around, checking out the shops, the duty free, but there really wasn’t much in this airport. We got so busy trying to find something to do that we almost missed our flight – and we didn’t realize there was a time change between Phuket and Kuala Lampur…the flight was only an hour so we assumed there would be no time change…oops. We just heard “Tiger Airways is calling Passengers Miss Ewwwwa Stolarz and Mr. Shad Radka. Please report to gate A3A for immediate departure”. We ran to the gate and were the last passengers to get on, first time that that’s happened! But we were on and on our way to Perth. It was a five hour flight with no on board entertainment, drinks or food unless you paid. It was official we were leaving Asia where the free airline food and drinks and friendliness were so nice!


WTF? Christmas snowman made out of dirt. AKA the Christmas poo.
We arrived in Perth at night and were surprised that you could buy duty free once you got off the plane, score. Australia is very serious about protecting themselves against all foreign pests and animals that could contaminate their very fragile eco system. Upon arriving we were asked to declare anything that may cause harm to their environment, including items such as wood and straw. Why would anyone bring in wood? We would normally ask that question but before leaving Phuket Ewa bought a wood hair pin…if there were any worms in it could cause huge problems for them. The same goes for food, you cannot bring any food into Australia; none, not even the food you had left over on the airplane which most countries allow. Everyone is interrogated and bags are x-rayed and you have to declare everything, even medication. Since Ewa had a straw hat and an item made of wood security checked her bags. We didn’t think that normally people would bring in food. There was one passenger that we saw who tried to bring in an entire suitcase of food. We heard the authorities tell her she would be fined, heavily, and everything would be confiscated. Turns out we over paid on our visas because the website told us we needed to get a certain type but that information was incorrect and we paid about ten times more. But hey...now if we want to, we can enter Australia multiple times for up to three months for the next 12 months. Our tradition after leaving a city is to take the map from the previous city and tear it when we arrive in the new city. It is a symbolic end of the past and a fresh beginning. After all of our fight and visa troubles, we didn’t even have a Singapore map to rip up when we landed in Perth, so we tried unsuccessfully to rip up a baggage tag. Little did we know that this would be a bad omen for future troubles.


Chad at Lake Thetis
We arrived at our hostel in Perth and went for a bite to eat in the area. The first thing we noticed was that everyone was completely drunk in the streets. It was like a busy weekend night in a bar area on a Thursday night and it wasn’t even 11pm. Then we realized it was Christmas Holidays and we were in a “bar area” of town. Since all the restaurants were closed because it was so “late” (a shock coming from Asia where everything is open all the time!) All we could find to eat was a kebab. It was good ;)

That is one thing that is very strange for us, the fact that Australians like to either go to sleep very early or they don’t like to work very late. Restaurants, internet cafés, shopping centers, grocery stores all close before nine. People disappear from the streets and only the shadies stay out. We think that everyone is either really lamo and has a self-imposed curfew or they’re at the bar because all the Pubs and Bars are usually full.
We were feeling tired the next day so we didn’t do much except go to the grocery store. This was our first “day” in Australia and we realized pretty quickly what people were talking about when they warned us about the Australian Sun. It was 10am and we were cooking! No kidding ozone hole! SPF 45 seems not enough here. We decided that it would be impossible to do anything between 11 am and 4 pm. On the plus side once we reached the grocery store we were so excited to have such a large selection of fresh fruit and veg! Organic food! Local food! Whatever we were craving we could get here. The hostel owner put on a Barbie (BBQ) that night, it was all you can eat and it was delicious, there were steaks, lamb sausages, and Greek salad.


Ewa at Hangover Bay

The following day we finally caught up on some much needed banking and found some really funny charges on our credit card from Winnipeg…don’t remember going to or buying anything in Winnipeg – crap someone stole our credit card number! This is the first time on the trip that we have had this happen to us, we are pretty lucky considering all the countries we’ve been to! We called Visa and went through all of the charges that weren’t ours and they are investigating it. Too bad for us we now don’t have our travel credit card, luckily our debit cards work at the ATM’s and Chad has a backup credit card. What a pain! We also didn’t know where we would have the new credit cards sent to; we don’t really have a permanent address. Next problem we ran into is our computer. We got a bad virus and it crashed our system. After countless hours trying to fix it on our own, we called in a ‘pro’. The pro wasted two of our days (confusion with when he was supposed to show up) and in the end simply wiped the hard drive. Great, there goes all our data! The following day Chad went down to the place where we were renting our road trip van from, a company called Wicked Vans. Basically this van has everything you need for a long term road trip in it; a bed, camping chairs and table, dishes, a sink and we splurged to make sure we had AC. When he got there they needed the credit card he used to make the booking to pay for it…oops yeah we don’t have that because the number was stolen. No worries Mate we take cash, debit or another credit card. Great, do you take American Express? No. Oh ok, I’ll pay debit. Sorry it was declined. That’s impossible, try it again (they tried 4 times until realizing that Australia debit works on Visa debit which is not the same as interact used back home in Canada) All we have left now is cash. Our bank won’t let us take enough money out in one day. So we had to go to the bank a few days in a row and call them to up our limit just so that we could take this van! We were ready to get out of Perth and get on the road. It’s a bit sad but with all the troubles we had, that we didn’t get to actually see much of the city and spent the time instead sorting out issues. Soon enough we were off like turtles, with our shell on our back… across Australia!


Ewa, Chad and 'Root Toot' our home for the next 3 weeks
Finally on December 22nd we were leaving Perth and on a whim went to the Indian Visa office realizing that if we wanted to see India we should maybe send our passports away now before Christmas and New Years. We struggled if we wanted to go out of our way and find the office without all the right information, or just wait and send our applications by mail into Sydney later. We had the applications mostly filled out but were stuck on a few questions we didn’t know how to answer. So even though we were running late leaving the city (as always) we went to the office and it was the fastest most amazing Visa office we have ever been to! We were helped right away, no line and the visa officer helped us answer our questions, essentially telling us to ignore everything we couldn’t fill out! He was so fast! “Write this here, here and here, sign here. Glue your picture here. No you don’t need that. Yes sign here. That’ll be 220 dollars. Thank you and Happy Christmas”. Literally that is how fast we were in and out, and yes here in Australia, or at least Perth they say “Happy Christmas” not “Merry Christmas”. Chad joked he felt violated… that’s just how fast the process was! And we were on our way across Australia! We will be driving over 4000km from Perth all the way to Sydney, it’s sad that we haven’t done this in Canada. We’ve seen more of Australia than we have of our own country and when we get back we really want to see more of our side of the world.


Ewa at the Pinnacles
We travelled north from Perth to check out the amazing pinnacles Ewa had heard about. Imagine Drumheller, but in Australia and in the middle of the desert. A national park in the middle of nowhere, we drove 300 km North to check out this natural beauty. We left from Perth, and travelled as far north as we could in one day, and stopped at the first caravan park we could find after sunset. Apparently it is quite unsafe to travel at night in Aus, with most of the wildlife being nocturnal. On the long drive up we were treated to an amazing sunset and beautiful skylines. The pinnacles and the area was amazing, being surrounded by the dessert, whipping wind and the limestone pillars. The wind was so strong at times that it almost was enough to blow you off of your feet. After leaving the pinnacles we stopped at a little beach called Hangover bay. This bay was amazing. Brilliant blue waters, really soft sand, but super cold water. We didn’t stop much longer than to take a stroll on the beach and snap a few photos but it is certainly worth the side trip from the pinnacles. If only we didn’t have such a strong dislike for cold water, it would have been much better! We also stopped at a ‘primordial’ lake (Lake Thetis), where there is cyanobacteria that is supposed to have been the initial building blocks of life on Earth. It was a lot less interesting than we thought, but hey, that’s what roadtrips are about, just stopping to see things that may be interesting! The after our trip to the pinnacles, we managed to make it all the way back down to Perth for the night, to stay at a caravan park outside of the city before continuing south.


Sunset along the drive from Perth to the pinnacles

permalink written by  ECRadventure on December 19, 2009 from Perth, Australia
from the travel blog: ECRadventure's Travel Blog
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Bussleton, Margaret River, Augusta... Christmas in Australia

Augusta, Australia


Wishing all our friends and family a merry christmas from Aus

On Christmas Eve, we headed south down the hi-way to Bussleton, where we settled down for two nights of doing not much but relaxing and swatting flies. We tried our best to blend the Australian tradition of BBQ’s on the beach at Christmas with our family traditions at home and we succeeded with moderate success! We hit a few beaches and some of the coast line around Geographie bay. The area has spectacular beaches and great winding roads for taking day trips. The one really disappointing aspect of the area was the amount of flies. Now, if you’re from Canada and have never seen ‘desert face flies’, I am 100% sure that you wouldn’t appreciate them. They swarm for your body cavities. Your nose, mouth, ears, eyes, anywhere that there may be a spec of moisture, they dive for it. They are also far more persistent than you can imagine. It ruined a lot of our experiences on the West coast because we couldn’t spend a minute outside. .


Breaking the Oplatek ... Polish tradition at Christmas
Christmas Eve was spent getting settled into the camp, cooking salmon and prawns on the Barbie and wrapping our presents. We spent the night in the van to avoid the bugs, but we had a great night together thinking of our families back home and enjoying our festive cheer. Christmas day we relaxed on the beach and chatted with family on the phone. At night, we indulged in a grand feast of roasted turkey breast with fried yams and potatoes. It was as close to Canadian as we could get, without actually cooking an entire turkey. As per Polish tradition we had “oplatek” ( blessed wafer, aka bread) before the meal and wished each other wonderful and positive things for the upcoming year. Ewa also made the closest version of Polish potato salad, it wasn’t Grandmas recipe but again, the closest we could get. We ended the meal indulging in an Aussie Chocolate pudding, it was pretty delish, a warm cake with chocolate sauce on top, you can actually buy them ready and heat them in the microwave


Celebrating Christmas with our christmas crowns... tradition started by Cheryl!


Christmas presents in the van!
On Boxing day we headed out around the coast to the Margaret river region. It is surrounded by beautiful coast lines and river valleys that boast amazing vineyards, orchards and various farms. We spent the next two days wandering around. We visited an olive grove and tasted many strange and wonderful olive oils, tapenades, pestos, and olives. The combinations of olive oils were totally new and so delicious! They had mandarin, chilli, lemon etcetera see www.oliobello.com . We visited the Voyager vineyard, a chocolatier, a cereal / nut farm, and a delicatessen with gourmet cheeses. The two days in the region was an indulgence and we loved it!


Olio Bello! These suckers are great, buy online (really expensive though)


White wine at the Voyager estate
After leaving Margaret river, we headed south to Augusta and then East to Pemberton and onward to Esperance. This area is famous for the rugged coast and giant forests. In Augusta we took the long drive out to the lighthouse and can claim to have stood on the most South-West part of Australia. Heading East we stopped at the Bicentennial tree, where you can climb 68 meters to an aerial platform above the surrounding trees. The climb is scary because there are no safety nets or guards. The ladder is made from iron poles drilled into the tree and they are very slippery. The higher you climb the more you lose focus because the height makes you dizzy. It was quite a rush to climb the tree; Ewa even had to climb on the outer edge of the ladder to pass another climber who was coming down the tree! After climbing the Bicentennial tree, we headed further East to the valley of the giants and walked the tree-top walk. It’s a 600 meter walk through the forest canopy at heights of 60 meters. The forest is mainly eucalyptus trees, which is a hard-wood species native to Australia. The wood is naturally fire-resistant and can withstand forest fire. The core of the tree will burn away, but the exterior remains intact. Some species can grow to over 100 meters and live for centuries.


Volcanic sand at Augusta lighthouse (most S.W. point in Aus)



permalink written by  ECRadventure on December 27, 2009 from Augusta, Australia
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Esperance..NYE and champagne!

Esperance, Australia


The warning for the Bicentennial tree outside of Pemberton

On the 'walk of the giants'


Overlooking Yallingup beach. Too expensive for our backpackers taste
We continued along the winding rolling highway through ever changing scenery of forests. The trees seemed to change every 50-100 km with a whole new ecosystem. It kept the drive interesting, reminding us a lot of a drive through the Okanagan valley at times and through the Rockies at others. On the 30th, of December we stopped into Esperance to set-up camp for two nights. We figured with NYE the next day any place that we tried to stop in would likely be full. Esperance is quite small and it feels like a small town, with local butchers and one main street. With all of the tourists coming to see the beaches there are a lot more services than you’d expect! The beaches are truly amazing here. The water is crystal clear and beaches have white-silica sand that is as soft as can be. The only downside is the water is very very cold! On a nice warm day this wouldn’t be a problem, but both days that we were here, the temperature didn’t get above 21 degrees and there was a strong breeze so we just enjoyed the view.


Overlooking Twilight beach outside of Esperance


Our NYE kisss in the van... awwww how romantic!
On NYE, we picked up a bottle of sparkling wine and a few beers and settled into our van – again- for a night of talking and reading. The caravan park was too far out of the city to head to a bar, but we celebrated in style together! We tried to keep the tradition alive with the ‘round the world NYE” where you celebrate NYE with as many time zones as you can. However, with Sydney really being the first place in the world to celebrate NYE, we had a much later start than we normally would in Calgary! The next day, we were off for a drive to the Fort McMurray of Australia!



permalink written by  ECRadventure on December 31, 2009 from Esperance, Australia
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Kalgoolrie... why is the brothel closed???

Kalgoorlie, Australia


The wide streets of Kalgoolrie

We decided to side-track right from the get go and instead of heading east to the Nullarbor we went North to a mining town called Kalgoorlie, the equivalent of Fort Mac. If you sound it out it kind of sounds like : C a l g a r y. Why in the world did we want to go there? For one we missed the Mac a lot….haha, No. The town has many pubs, filled with miners who come in after their shift, still in their coveralls, for a few hours of drinking and socializing. They even have an electronic display showing the current stock market price for the various ores that they mine. The roads are some of the widest in the world, to accommodate all of the 'roadtrains' that used to make U-turns right in the middle of the street. Top this all off with each bar being served by ‘skimpies’ or women in lingerie, and that the town has a long tradition of legalized prostitution. It has tattoo parlours, brothels, churches and gambling. We said to ourselves, ‘how can we go wrong with this!?!?’ So we headed North, with the 200km side trip to have a taste of a working town. Right away when we pulled in you could tell that this was a rough and ready kind of place; a little worn around the edges with seedy characters almost everywhere.


The sign advertising the ladies of the night available at one of the brothels
We settled into our caravan park on the outskirts of town, where they told us “not to walk around at night, but to make sure to take a taxi after dark, because of the blacks (the aboriginals)”. The owners of the caravan park said that usually they don’t cause any problems but at night they travel in groups, so it’s better just in case to take a taxi. They reassured us that they’ve been living here for a long time and there’s no reason to worry and it’s safe…but take a taxi anyway. We found the story just a little disturbing but more because of the apparently racist opinion than for the apparent danger. After coming home after dark, we didn’t doubt them as much as the streets were filled with like people shuffling drunkenly around the streets in mobs.


Sitting in one of the pubs, just like a shot out of an old western movie
We headed into downtown and saw that the place was nearly deserted. We forgot to take into account that this is January 1, 2010; a national holiday in just about every country around the planet. With it being a work town on top of that, nearly the entire city was somewhere else. Hahaa… whoops. We managed to stop in a couple of bars, chat with a few of the locals and see some of the skimpies before we headed down to the brothel for the famous tour!


Now, again the holiday managed to spoil our plans. The tour was supposed to be at 18:00 according to the guide book and to our caravan park owners, but with the holidays the Madame of the brothel decided to have the tour at 17:00 instead. All of the ladies of the establishment were away on vacation and the only reason for the brothel to be open was for the tour. As we pulled up at 17:50, a group of people leaving the building told us we were too late. Even pleading with puppy dog eyes through the door wouldn’t bring the Madame over to say hello and let us in. A few more stops around the town and we were back at our campsite with take-away Thai. The great thing about Kalgoolrie, is there are no flies and it’s actually warm at night! For the first time in many many days we were able to finally sit on our camping chairs outside of the van and enjoy the evening air! The next day we were set and ready to head back down south and then East across the great Nullabor!



permalink written by  ECRadventure on January 1, 2010 from Kalgoorlie, Australia
from the travel blog: ECRadventure's Travel Blog
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Caiguna...desert and the long road ahead

Caiguna, Australia


Wakling on the sand dunes outside of Eucla

Well, the day finally came to head out across the Nullabor and brave the desert. We managed to make great time on the road after a bit of a later start to the day, we ended up in Caiguna, ~420km from Kalgoolire. The roadhouse in Caiguna actually has a small desert museum that makes the stop at least slightly more entertaining than just being a gas station. The road is barren and desolate but surprisingly there are areas of vegetation and sparse forests. We didn’t have a lot to occupy our time along the way other than the sights of the desert, hunting to see if we could spot any animals and our conversation. We managed to see a number of eagles and a couple of emu’s but that is it. The tradition lives on, across the entire desert we didn’t see a single live kangaroo!


Look out all of these dangerous animals!
The next day we stopped for a tour of the Eucla telegraph house and the sand dunes, where we were again attacked by fearsome flying insects intent to lay eggs somewhere in us. It was a great little walk through the desert dunes until the flying insects started biting, about 20 minutes into the walk. We made a few stops along the way at cliffs overlooking the Southern Ocean. Standing on the cliffs you feel like you are at the end of the world, which is partly true! The only landmass south of us at that point is Antarctica. There was no one around to top it all off, it felt like a true deserted tropical island, it was stunning.


Looking out at the end of the world! Nothing but Antarcita past the horizon
That night we stopped at the Nullabor roadhouse on the South Australian side of the state border. This roadhouse is about as barren as you can get. No cooking facilities, just a patch of dirt on the limestone plateau with some basic shower facilities. We got to take advantage of our little propane cooker that came with our campervan. While cooking and eating we literally had to chase away birds from our plates. Chad picked up the camping chair swinging it trying to chase the hopping birds away but they only ran far enough not to get hit and then would start hopping back towards us and our food. Apparently when you are that hungry, you don’t mind the odd chair in the face!


Ewa bundled up against the cold and the voracious animals!

permalink written by  ECRadventure on January 3, 2010 from Caiguna, Australia
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