The Far South

I’m going more and more lazy (maybe just adapting to Aussie lifestyle “buddy” ), so I’ll just make you a resume of my week in Sydney.

I’ve seen :
Sydney Harbour with the bridge and the Opera (my first modern architectural orgasm ! fuck off Foster, Gehry and Nouvel...this is THE masterpiece), Manly beach and Sydney Harbour national park. The aquarium (amazing), lady bay (nudist beach), swimmed in a 50 m salt water pool, The Blue Mountains (just one hour from the center and really fabulous), and some of Sydney diferent neighborhoods like Kings Cross, Newtown, Surry Hills, the Rocks, the CBD...

I liked : wildlife and wilderness in the middle of the city (huge spiders, lizards and even bats in the botanical gardens), the beaches so close, and beautiful, the healthy way of life (never seen so many people jogging, swimming, surfing ...before), the mix of modern and more ancient building, it’s really a beautiful town in a perfect location. Cheap asian restarurants everywhere too, like in all Australian cities.

I din’t like that much :
Hostels (they are frankly expensive and crappy in Australia, and Sydney is no exception), public transportation (quite complicated, not efficient), street lighting very poor at night, prices (if you work here you get very high wages so that’s not an issue...but for a traveller it is ), kind of “ghettos” neighborhoods, this is probably the most multicultural city in Australia, but you don’t really feel it because the center and beaches are really “white” neighborhoods, and urban tribes don’t really mix, and last but not least, the weather !! half of my stay under rain and clouds, and the town totally changes with bad weather....bye bye this cool outdoor lifestyle...it get’s really more depressed and boring.

One of Australia national sports is comparing Sydney and Melbourne...you have to like one and hate the other, and that’s supposed to define you.
For an European it seems to be a kind of absurd battle because they look much more alike than different !
Both are really wealthy, modern, with an american urbanism (business centre and sprwaling houses suburbs) and multicultural cities, with an outstanding “•Aussie barbie” lifestyle, beaches good restaurants, nice parks....both are also very far away from eveything else, expensive and with a weather which is not always as good as expected.

So which one did I prefer ? honestly from a “turistical” point of view Sydney is more beautiful and interesting (more views, buildings and beach fun). But it is a little bit more crowed than Melbourne and has already passed the “no return• point” when a city is just too big and people get consequently more stressed and don’t care about the others.
On the other hand Melbourne, as I said before, was the most “relaxed” big occidental city I’ve ever seen, it also has more galeries and a maybe a more “cafe and go out” oriented culture (that why they say it’s the most european city in Australia ) than the more “sport and look at me “ almost californian Sydney.
Anyway I enjoyed both of them, and wouldn’t mind to live there for a year or two (but actually I don’t know what I would do in Australia after all !!).

Here we are with the cities, now I’ll spend almost three weeks on the east coast, first wwoofing again in Byron Bay and then exploring the Great Bareer Reef near Cairns.

Today I just feel tired of writing so quickly here are the pics of my 3 days trip (in an organized tour from Alice Springs to save time and money) to the so called "red centre" of Australia with the famous Kings Canyon and Ayers Rock (Uluru).
Actually the red centre was very green because of recent rainfalls (apparently it hadn't been like that for decades, and it barely looked as a desert!), the group was ok...usual boring backpackers and dumb and useless aussie guide....we slept outside, firecamps...dirty but fine, no too hot neither.
Now back to civilization in Sydney...and I love it.

So I finally made the hitchiking in a day to Adelaide, thanks to 4 aussie “red necks” the kind of old car and tuning freaks...I cut the details, but they were nice.
Then two cool days in Adelaide, another relaxing town with a lot of parks, smaller and warmer than Melbourne, maybe too quiet alghtough we are in the Festival period (one of the biggest cultural events in the South hemisphere, theatre, concerts, performances....even a play with Isabelle Hupert this year !). Once again my stay has been more enjoyable thanks to Klay (australian this time) who hosted me there in a very nice and fancy apartment downtown with a great view. Not much to see here anyway, except from the Festival shows.
Then bus and ferry to finally arrive at Kangaroo Island, 13 kms from the mainland shore.
I’m staying wwoofing at Liz and Scott’s place, who have a nice property near Pelican lagoon, in a typical bush landscape of the Island which means a Mallee tree forest (kind of eucalyptus) and actually reminds a little bit to a Mediterranean lanscape.
There I found 3 other german young wwoofers (who make me remember how “unfinished” you are when you are 19). I discovered actually that Liz and Scott are two retired aussie who use wwoofing as cheap labour force to maintain their property, they have just a big veggie garden, and great part of our job here consist in construction work for a new bungalow. We have to work much more as well (compared with my first wwoof experience ), an the accomodation is a little bit crappy (from outside it looks nice, in the midlle of a forest, but inside, you have spidernets, bats, mice...it’s really dirty, and I could spend one hour to explain how “the shower” works) !
Still the place is beautiful and quiet, the weather is unfortunately regular (a few very bad days), there’s a nice beach nearby (water is so warm!) and the wildlife amazing and literally living with you (kangaroos, wallabies, possums, birds, pelicans.... They also make their own beer, yogurt and bread, so I can’t really complain.
Actually living here is a perfect experience to understand Australian bush life...the have to collect their own water (so have lot of huge tanks they fill with rain water), and produce their own electricity (solar panels), and everyone talks as much about bushfire as how the weather is like.
The island is big, and we are a little bit lost in the middle of nowhere, so it is not as easy to visit, and I have less free days too.

Ok I finally spent 11 days here, and the stay was globally positive especially for the wilderness of the island and the wildlife watching. But time to go back to the mainland and the civilization for a few days, before going to the bush again, this time the desertic outback from the center of Australia, with the famous Ayers Rock.