eventually reality comes a knocking

FINALLY. We are almost in Cairns. Hahaha, haven't made it QUITE yet... still another 150km to go... but currently we are camping in a woman's yard (whom we met in a pub). She lives in the most beautiful part of Australia that we have seen so far... its got lush green hills, cows grazing in the distance... and the best part is it's FREE. Perhaps we will stretch this out as long as possible.. as we all know as soon as I make it to the next stop I have to work my butt off for a few months.

The last week or so has been interesting.... in a way that makes a good story for others, but really sucks for me. Remember that boiling sound we heard coming from the van?? Well... it got worse. It started as us just having to fill the coolant every day, and never go over 90km so the sound didn't get too bad. After a couple of weeks of that, we noticed that the coolant was POURING straight out of the van when we stopped.... So we took it to a mechanic (don don don) and found out that (hold your breath) we are FUCKED. Basically. Totally Fucked. He informed us that we either have a cracked head or a blown head gasket, which he estimated would cost around $2000 to fix (remember we only paid $2800 for the van in the first place, and the people we bought it from only actually got $1800 for it after fixing the oil leaks and replacing the tires). CLEARLY we don't have $2000 right now (frankly I don't even have $500 right now) and we were still about 700km from Cairns (awesome). The (very nice) mechanic said that we could make it to Cairns, as long as we pulled over when it gets hot and wait for it to cool down so we can refill the rad. And, since he was such a nice guy, he didn't charge us for the bad news.

puddle of coolant under the van

Sooooo... it's been really awesome for the last week. We get to drive for about 50km (sometimes 70 if we are lucky) then we have to find a place to pull over (which is REALLY easy when you are driving on roads that only have one lane paved with gravel on the sides) sit for half and hour or so (in the excruciating Australian heat) fill the rad back up, then drive for another 50km (did I mention we are driving with the heat on full blast as well to try and help the engine stay cool?). Needless to say, it takes us all day to get 200km. So if you think we were going slow before, this is a snails pace. The first day we were really sulky about it (grumbling and swearing each time we pulled over) but we have since accepted our fate, and are using the time to relax and learn new skills. We even finally named the van (Beppe... and Italian nickname (since we bought him from Italians) which I can't pronounce properly) and then he drove for 100km without getting too hot!!! (or maybe that had something to do with the fact that it was shady and later in the day... but lets go with the theory that we loved him so he loved us back)

patiently waiting for the van to cool off... luckily in the shade this time

Tina balancing a stick on her finger

Soon (very soon) we shall be in Cairns, and that means we will be getting a reality check (as my father put it) and finding a place to live (so we can park the van) and jobs (so we can fix the van... or sell it and buy a new (to us) one). Hopefully we can make enough money to deal with our van issues and have enough to resume our travels on time (we want to travel (and enjoy) the east coast and end up in Sydney by Christmas) and then probably work again in the new year.

Oh, and I finished my hair. Two weeks, blistered hands, sore fingers, and 66 dreads later... I am finally done. I think they turned out ok... time will tell I guess. Now I just have to maintain them, and ensure that I do that properly so I don't end up will smelly hair and a bad scalp!

Look at that... a short one.

the looooooong road to Cairns

Woohooo I can plug in AND have internet service... lucky you, that means I get to write.

Unfortunately, since we left Litchfield there really hasn't been much of interest... yet it has still taken us two weeks to get halfway to Cairns. Currently we are in a little hole in the ground called Camboweal, just on the other side of the Queensland boarder (woohoo another state!!). This place is AWESOME... in the sense that when we drove into town there was a horse standing in the middle of the road. What you ask? Why wasn't it tied up?? Oh... it was. It was tied up and had enough room to walk into the middle of the road. ???? We had to drive over the rope to get around him (or her... I didn't check) oh how I wish I took a picture for you.

Lets go backwards (cuz it's easier for me to think of what has happened today and then the day before... and so on... I am feeling lazy). The fun thing of the day (besides the horse of course) was the run in with the police (don't worry I'm not looking for bail money). We pulled off in a rest stop to fill up our water (we buy big jugs of drinking water and fill our bottles) which just happened to be across the street from a police station (seriously... in the middle of nowhere... I suppose they were bored... that is all I can think of to explain the following happenings). So, we get out to stretch our legs and there are two police officers about ten feet away, standing by the side of the road. My friend (one of the British blokes) walked over to them to ask how far it was to the next petrol station (or gas station. Whatever). He was carrying a pouch of tobacco and rolling a smoke. (Cigarettes are way too expensive here so we are forced to roll our own... oh yeah... Yes, I am smoking again. I hear that sigh. Shut up. My body. I'll quit again when I feel like it... if you haven't gathered, the theme of my life at the moment is to do whatever I want whenever I want.) So one police officer says he smells cannabis (no, we don't have any) and checks his pouch. (Really, like he would walk over to talk the them CARRYING drugs with him!!!???) Then he proceeds to breathalyze him (because we were clearly intoxicated at 1pm) and then he comes over to us to ask us if we have any cannabis and smells the van. (Maybe it was the butterfly van, maybe it was the fact that I have half a head of dreadlocks... oh yeah, I am also dreading my own hair as we drive... may not have been my brightest idea ever.) We laugh, tell him we are on our way to Cairns, and he informs us that is the cannabis capital of Aus (sweet) and then he breathalyzes Tina. (REALLY?? do you think we would have stopped in the rest stop with the police if we were drunk and stoned?? REALLY?) So then we are about to drive away, and I smile and wave (like the cheeky girl I am) and they stop us again (darn my cheeky ways) and look at the mismatch between the decal on our windshield (an old registration sticker from another state) and the state on our license plates (which has no decal or anything whatsoever to say whether or not it is still valid) and helps me take the expired sticker off. (And doesn't even ASK to see proof that my rego is valid!!! OR check our drivers licenses... We could have been driving stolen vehicles that weren’t insured without a drivers license, but all they wanted to know was if we were carrying drugs or drunk.) I was VERY relieved, because we don't actually HAVE proof that the van is ours (it's in the mail). Then (and this is my favorite part) he asks if I am Canadian (why yes I am) and then asks me to repeat lines from the TRAILER PARK BOYS (in my Canadian accent it was apparently amusing) which I do, but first I make sure he is not going to arrest me if I say I am on my way to smoke pot (hahahha). So, since he is a fan, I of course pull out my claim to fame... you know, my “celebrity” cousin (fyi Mr. Layhey is my mom's first cousin) and he is SO excited that I am related to someone from the Trailer Park Boys (why yes, my country IS that small) he calls over his partner to share the news, and then checks that I’m not messing with him (to which I reply, as I always do, if I were going to lie about having a famous cousin, don't you think I’d pick a different show, or at least a different character from that show?) Then, thankfully, with smiles and waves they let us drive away (as I make another cheeky comment about NOT having pot even with my cousin being who he is). Oh, and the funny part was, we haven't seen ANY police on the road yet (in about 1500km) until this incident...

Hmmmmm.... other interesting things you ask??? (was that even interesting for you?? I mean, it was for me... but it may be one of those “had to be there” stories). We were attacked by an army of ants at Barkly Homestead last night. Do yourself a favour and NEVER stop there. There were ants EVERYWHERE. I know, you're giggling, silly Heather, little princess, can't handle a few bugs (surprisingly I am not the prissiest among my group... in fact, I would go as far as to say, as the Canadian I am actually the most SEASONED camper among us.. that's right... wrap your head around THAT). But this was INSANE. I actually had to stand on my bumper while trying to put the dishes away in the kitchen. We couldn't stand in one spot without being swarmed by the little ass holes, and I SWEAR they were biting me. Needless to say, I hung out in the van watching South Park on my laptop and went to bed early (screw sitting out in the dark waiting to get ravished by bugs).

Before that we spent a fear inducing night at Tennant Creek. This is yet another place you need not stop. Ever. For anything. First of all, the campground (Juno Outbush Camp) was gated with a sign that said to keep it closed because of TUBERCULOSIS. (yes, please can I spend the night?) So we get to the campground and there are horses just walking around, shitting everywhere (like, EVERYWHERE, the place had piles of animal droppings everywhere you looked). We choose a spot and realize there is literally ONE other person there (clearly the rest of Australia knows better) get out of our cars and step onto the needle grass (which was the bane of my existence, poking me every minute). The entire place was in disrepair, I was TERRIFIED to use the bathrooms (and I refused to in the dark) the ants and the spiders had taken over the place. All night we heard the sound of the windmill creaking, horses neighing, and a lone radio playing in an empty room. I was waiting for a man with a shotgun to come open my van door in the night... or at least a GIANT man eating spider to crawl in and finish me off.

yes.  that sign is really there

mmmm clean

creepy windmill.. with the radio sound coming from that general area

random crap everywhere

biggest spider as of yet

Before that was.... Banka Banka. Not half bad, nothing really to say about that place. It was kinda neat, there were lots of older people in their motor homes there, sitting around the communal camp fire. It made me think of my parents... that's them. I think. It's strange, that is a part of their life that I am not a part of.. so I watched them converse around the fire and wondered which ones my parents were... the man telling the dirty jokes perhaps?? I think so.

The night before that we were in Mataranka (seriously, I can't make these names up). The campground at Elsey National Park was delightful. We decided to spend two nights there since we enjoyed it so much. The caretaker was really friendly and even had FREE chopped wood for us. AND the road out there was COVERED in Wallaby’s and we saw a snake (a big black one slithering across the street) and a bull. A freaking bull, just hanging out it the street. Oh, AND a Wallaby hit Gareths truck (it actually ran INTO the truck as they were driving... I really don't know how these intelligent animals aren't extinct). There was BEAUTIFUL thermal springs there too, with crystal clear waters, I would absolutely recommend a stop there. Although the nights there were a little creepy... I felt like I was in prehistoric times... with all the sounds in the night... I can't even describe what they were (besides the donkeys having sex)... but it was straight out of Jurassic Park.

Katherine was the town before that. There is the Katherine Gorge, which is supposed to be beautiful... we were going to rent canoes to go up, but it was way too expensive. We opted for the free excruciating hike to look over the first gorge instead. Since we had been wanting to go for a canoe trip (we had been talking about doing it for a while) We canoed down the river further upstream (far cheaper) and looked for croks (apparently there are only fresh water ones, not salties... which are the dangerous man eating ones) but, unfortunately all we saw was half a dead baby. But I did get to tan on the canoe (and apparently Jack was NOT very impressed with my never ending energy to paddle). 

Katherine Gorge

Wallaby and her baby!

me... paddling my little heart out

the only crock to be seen

Oh, Edith Falls. BEAUTIFUL place. My favourite swimming hole of the trip is just a short hike from the campground... it was... well... you had to be there. It was a nice hike to. The campground wasn't so great. We actually got a complaint before 9pm!!! (yes... it was my laughing... apparently I sound like Popeye when I have been drinking).

what beautiful forests they have here....

most beautiful swimming hole EVER

There. A short(ish) summary of the last week. And again, my ability to prattle on astounds me. Hahahah. (just last night I told my mother I would blog but I didn't really have anything to say)