drowsy drivers die

okay. so - we haven't died yet. knock on wood. anika and i have made it within reach of adelaide hills, which is just east of adelaide, in the state of south australia. we managed to luck out and find a library in which we can haven internet for free as long as we want (provided no one is waiting) - and i am stoked. more for the whole updating everything, not so much for the cramps in my metacarpals i will have to work out later.

last i wrote we were in hobart, the biggest city (as far as i know) in tasmania. it wasn't THAT big, but most of the locals definitely had a "big-city" attitude on. we didn't get it. our journey started out great with the find of a sweet internet cafe. all would have been well if it wasn't set up to kick a person off without warning - hense why i was unable to completely finish editing the photos i had uploaded at that point. but whatever - minor details.

we carried on to find a shower in the city. we figured we might be able to score one at a local hostel. so we went on a YHA (youth hostel association) hunt. we found it. we asked the front desk. the elderly man behind it looked at us with a confused expression and stated that we were at the office of the YHA - not the hostel. our bad. we almost got our foot out the door, but then our informative gurru proceeded to "inform" us of how he would like us to spend our last 3 days in tasmania. he planned our route and stops along the way down to the minute. we never asked him to. i'd like to say it was nice of him to schedule our travels, but really anika and i were too busy contemplating the notion of cleanliness to appreciate it.

eventually we made it back to the van, after another failed attempt to gain shower access at the REAL YHA hostel. there the elderly (we were beginning to wonder where all the people our age were at that point) man scoffed at us for asking such and "ubsurd" question and proceeded to converse with his companion sitting in the visitors chair reading a paper as to where we COULD go to get that shower. we were not part of that conversation - not even as a object one would admire in the corner of the room. anyway - we made it back to the van - only to find we had a parking ticket. joy. we figured this was all a sign to move on from hobart. and move on we did - to 9 mile beach. nothing like putting the feet in the sand to make all worries float away.

and then we drove.

we spent the night at a free campground overlooking the ocean. we hiked in freycinet national park where the mountains reached the skies and the sand was so white one would think they were in the caribbean. we found a rest stop where we crashed for the night and woke up to discover we were right beside apple trees ripe for the picking. we hiked a gorge, did a photoshoot of us jumping off a aboriginal statue of sort, attempted to get free access to a cave tour and ended up at a cheese factory stuffing our faces of all the samples (not to mention the homemade ice cream was pretty good).

eventually we drove ourselves right into devonport where we found a caravan park for the night. we were on a mission to get clean. 11 days of not cleaning our clothes. 4 days without a shower. not to mention we needed to get to internet. it would have been a perfect night (clothes clean, hot shower) but no one thought to mention that the entire city closed down at 5. our lonely planet books weren't kidding when they said that the mcdonald's drive through is the most happening spot on a saturday night.

8 days in tasmania and it was time to say goodbye - we forked over our fee for the ride back to the mainland and boarded the ferry. the ride was fairly uneventful aside from filling our hours writing postcards, watching movies and trying out all the seats. however, there was at one point a time when we spotted hundreds of dolphins swimming and jumping alongside the ferry - we all pressed our faces against the windows in awe at the graceful creatures... in wonder that people would pay hundreds of dollars to hope to see them on a tour when we could see them for free. well - kind of - we DID have to pay for the ferry. it ain't cheap.

back in melbourne we watched our 3rd sunset over the city's horizon and contemplated the irony of that considering we had only been in melbourne for 1 day. go figure.

and the we drove (what else).

anika and i found a sweet camp spot at a 24 hour truckstop. hot showers. gas. food. sleep. what more could a person want? next day we drove. and drove. and drove. destination: adelaide. we didn't make it - though we did get to experience the great ocean road (the pictures say more than i ever could) and see the 12 apostles (again - pictures are better).... and make it to the south australia border.

today we have almost made it to adelaide. we are almost broke. we are almost tired. we are almost halfway to our destination of broome. 3 more weeks to go. the desert. the far north. hopefully broome. who knows what will happen next................... just so long as the many encouraging signs we see along the way (i.e.: "drowsy drivers die") don't come true - i think we'll be just fine...