Today is ANZAC* Day in Australia, New Zealand and several countries in the Pacific (Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji I think). It is the day which Australians and Kiwis remember their war dead. In the US it would be the equivalent of Memorial Day, or Remembrance Day in the UK. ANZAC Day, from what I’ve gathered, …
So, I wake up this morning before dawn to check my email before my flight. I do what I do, grab my bags and get a cab. The cab driver doesn’t really speak English and points towards the government palace, makes a shooting action with his fingers and says “very bad, very bad”. I get …
Still no reply from the US Consulate in Melbourne after four days. The consulate is structured such that you cannot actually talk to any Americans if you go to the consulate. The lobby is a security area and they wont let you in unless you have an appointment already. The only way I can get …
After a marathon session yesterday, I got through processing all my photos. However, the Internet connection here has been down for most of two days. I get 5-10 minutes of a slow connection here and there, but that’s it. So today, I’m sitting on about 200 photos which I have to upload to Flickr. I’m …
I’m (back) in Darwin. I was last here in February when I landed in Australia from East Timor. It has taken me this long to work my way up half the country. I’ve been lazy. Some fun facts about Darwin and the Norther Territory: Darwin is the capital of the Northern Territory. It is not …
I’m sitting in a bar in Margaret River, Western Australia enjoying the only free wifi I’ve found in Australia outside of the Cairns International Terminal. That is not an exaggeration in the slightest. This is the only place in the entire country. I’ve come to Margaret River with a single objective, which I haven’t achieved …
I’m getting ready to go to Papua New Guinea (PNG). My original plan was to fly to Port Moresby back in July when I was in the Solomon Islands. However, the flight schedule from Honiara was too unpredictable. There was only one flight a week and it was expensive and really didn’t fit into the …
While I can find occasional internet kiosks and can check email and even do updates, uploading photos is probably going to be out of the question until I get to Broome. This morning I’m in Katherine, NT, which appears to be the only real settlement between Darwin and Alice Springs. Last night I slept in …
Tomorrow brings this leg of the Australia adventure to an end. My very roundabout trip from Melbourne to Sydney has taken me to the Great Southern Ocean, 105F (40C) degree temperature in Mungo National Park, the top of the continent, and to the canyons of the Blue Mountains. I’m about halfway through the Great Ocean …