Pat's Australian Adventures

Life On The Farm

2011-04-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

up top some mountain in backyard on an other adventurous weekend

My christmas dish for breakfast, du bon Pate

Christmas dish

Christmas supper party. Good times and bad wine. Even santa arrived in his 4-wheeler with presents.

What happens when 2 backpackers have a birthday at the same time? We have a sweet cake potluck style. oh how I love cake!

Ginger stay off the beer alright! Thats our lovely pet at the backpackers. He wouldn't stop eating all our geckos that were climbing the walls eating bugs in our house

Caught a flash during a sweet tropical thunderstorm on top of the mountains in our backyard.

Didn't jump off like some silly backpackers did, but I had to see the view from the top of the falls

Holly Cow! There is the sweet waterfall

In our backyard, here I am standing besides one of the worlds most complex structures, a huge termite mound.

The adventure begins by exploring our backyard. Really going on a hike to find this big waterfall in unknown territory

My wonder full queen size bed where I spent almost 3 months in Walkamin, a little place that is not even on some maps, between Mareeba and Atherton, 1 hour inland of Cairns. In the beautifull Tablelands

Still some Sydney to Cairns pictures

2011-02-19T16:38:00.000-08:00

After a quick 10 days on the road through the east coast from Sydney and finally arrived to Cairns.

It was a light drizzling day by the waterfalls during our Delicious green moss. Lawn bowling in front of the famous castle of Paronella Park
picture of the castle during the night tour. awesome difference in the walk from day to night. We even seen some glow in the dark mushrooms called. The chemical that becomes luminescent is called liciferin (after the devil, Lucifer). The reaction is catalyzed by the enzyme luciferase. And the light emitted is usually used to avoid predators or signal to mates.

Beautiful waterfall during night

Turtles and Eal's in the pond having a feast old house at Paronella park

We pulled over on the side of the road in some random back roads you see the best sites. One of my first views of a kangaroo or wait, in this case it's a wallaby. They are both Marsupials (mother carrying young ones around in built in pouches) Big one, kangaroo, is built for speed and open terrain. small one, wallaby (in the pic) is built mostly for quick agility in Forest terrains. no picture is like liveAt the bottom of the Wallaman falls. Australia's highest waterfall

Very early on a Sunday morning with hard rain falling down. Nothing is gonna stop us from making it to the bottom of this waterfall, not even these closed of trail signs. It was definitely worth it. they were just doing some slight path paving construction, no danger at all really or Else I'm sure we would of turned around, maybe. We came to see the water fall and we are going to see the awesome water fall, I can hear it loudly but can't see it with all this fog

The trip to Wallaman falls, we camped overnight at the park. No roads are showing on the gps but somehow it states we are on wallaman falls Rd. Some parts of the road were very muddy and iffy for a nice camper van to climb up

Frosty Mango restaurant, I had an awesome fresh mango slushy, it was soo good. I bought some Mango and chili sauce. It tastes unreal with chicken and rice. and fries and potatoes and pasta and bread. I will definitely get a few more if i make it up that way again. My dream car\surfer style combo. Well not really my dream car or cosy style but it looked awesome. I would love to buy a camper van and travel with it, maybe some other time.

Made it all the way to Cairns, nice little city full of backpackers and stayed there for 3 nights then decided to look for a job. Here on the other side of the mountains is the Tablelands. All flat land and its very rich soil, perfect for farming. People say it was a big volcano that erupted and it surrounds it, but i couldn't find valid info. All i can say is, it's the largest highland area in Australia, covering approximately 18197 square kilometres.

I went job hunting at 11am one morning. Went to a travel companie and asked about fruit picking jobs. at 3 oclock that afternoon I was on the bus towards Walkamin and the very next day I was picking pineapples.

Sydney to Cairns in 10 days...

2011-01-27T03:20:00.000-08:00

The Church in the Capricorn Caves

Awesome caves

The outside of the Caves, it was too dark to take any decent pictures inside the cave, but as part of the tour we where given candles then the guide went away and we had to find the exit. withought any flashlight and only the candle light. was awesome.

Random huge Whale. Think it was an abandon store. I wonder if its for sale

Fluffy stuff in a river. looked like foamy soap bubbles and would fly with the wind

love these roads in the middle of nowheres

Rainbow beach. where we camped out for the night. Cops where excelent, they would pass in the parking lot on there routine they didin't mind us camping there and free patrol security.

Somehow this tree still grows in the middle of salt water, beautifull sky. not sure which beach

I kinda miss snow a little

Sydney to Cairns in 10 days... Part 3

2011-01-20T03:33:00.000-08:00

Nimbin street code, if only the whole world would follow these simple codes, we would be in a better place.

ah yes Nimbin. very weird little hippy town. The locals are messed up

no time to watch the sunset, we got to keep driving before dark pit stop to enjoy our favorite meal. peanut butter and jelly sandwich We had to stop and buy 10 bucks worth of Macadamia Nuts... amazingly great taste and soft texture. Cape Byron Lighthouse wheres waldo? just breathe Giant Prawn We went a bit in-land and took a small ferry to go back towards the east coast

Sydney to Cairns in 10 days... Part 2

2011-01-17T02:42:00.000-08:00

Fresh sweet sugar on a stick? Jackie borrowing a sugarcane from a field on the side of the road in the middle of nowheres.

love the cloudyness weather of the east coast in Australia's summer time

The big banana in Coffs Harbour

A Turtle in the middle of the road! what the heck? We pulled over and rescued it. Why did the turtle cross the road? To get to Shell-ter!! bad one.

First time Surfing or attempting to surf, didint catch big waves but had a blast in Coffs Harbour trying. It will deffinetly take some more time to get the hang of it and some crocodile free beaches.

Oh yeah, Our awesome old Toyota Campervan !!! Relocation deal Sydney to Cairns with a sweet loud Exhaust leak, haha My Wonderfull bed, Keep the noise down let me sleep.

Love the random signs

Nambucca Heads beach

update to come soon

2011-01-10T02:07:00.000-08:00

this is simply to explain again how crappy this internet is here. We have a limited amount of usage then it turns to dialup internet mode. so around the 16 of everymonth is when it will be fast again, untill people watch too many youtube videos and skype or whatever and eats up the gigabytes allowed per month. ill do a complete update from dec to now soon. im unable to upload pictures here while its slow but I can sometimes successfully upload some on facebook. cheers frank

Sydney to Cairns in 10 days... more to come

2010-12-19T03:31:00.000-08:00

This is the historic Roto house in port macquarie A lot of the injured koalas brought in are hit by cars or get attacked by other animals. The hospital has a lot of volunteers and is not funded by the government. Its a free hospital to visit and it's mainly funded by donations from loving and caring travelers and people from all over the world. this looks like a big healthy fella

One eyed koala, think it got in a fight eye would say. Worlds oldest Koala, unable to move as much as his young days, so he does not leave the hospital, its a really cool place how they are caged in but with trees inside so they can easily leave the hospital when they chose if they chose to go back to the wild. Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie My first time driving on the wrong side of the road and steering wheel on the wrong side, shifter on wrong side, signal lights and wipers, wrong side. To many people they would call it the right side. I quickly got used to it, at least the pedals where the right way.

love the road signs

In Bulahdelah, found a fish on a stick Here are my traveling friends, Jackie from BC Canada and Clair from England. Great experienced backpackers I met in Sydney. We rented a campervan, a Re-location deal, we only had 10 days to bring it way up to Cairns.

leaving Sydney

Sydney pictures

2010-11-26T16:44:00.001-08:00

I spent a week in Sydney, then met some friends and we are currently on the road a lot, no time for internet but will keep updating when possible, everything is expensif, this internet is 3 dollars an hour. Im currently in Airlie beach, working our way up the east coast, will be in Cairns Nov 29, the drop off date for our van

alberta pictures

2010-11-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

Sydney!!! Am I really here???

2010-11-15T22:44:00.000-08:00

Vancouver hostel experience was great. Loaded with Australians and Kiwis. Most of them just arrived in canada and had jobs lined up in the mountains while im all excited running away from this snow. The flight with chinese eastern airline was really long and loud. From Vancouver to Shanghai China the flight was packed with chinese people and kids where absolutly everywheres. One little boy kept on headbanging on my seat and asking me in his little chinese accent voice. "Exchuze me Shir, can u keep your sheat up shrtraight sir please". I just could not refuse, so for that 18 hour or whatever it was flight, there was definetly no sleeping involved. The shanghai airport is clean as a whisle, crazy clean. The flight was delayed a couple of hours there to Sydney. The staff in the plane could barely speak any english and there were maybe 5 white people out of problyl over 350 and i was one of them lonely guys. kinda like i was waldo in a wheres waldo book.

Finally made it in Sydney, and my hostel is sweet, its called Wake Up. The room of 10 people is quite interesting, people from Scotland, France, England, USA, Whales, Ireland, Australia, Sweden, Germany have all been in this room since ive been here. some people move in and out everyday so it's a great way to meet new people. And ofcourse I had to join my new roomates drinking this wonderful stuff called Goons. 4 litres of wine in a box for nearly 10 bucks. It was a great night and they showed me the downtown Sydney life, went to a bunch of different bars and pubs. Kinda has a Newyork style of city feal to it but with way more friendly people and possibly way more chinese people.
I went to see the Opera house and the beautiful Sydney Harbour, walked through the botanic garden, jogged in the city in pooring rain for over an hour while getting lost, was Grand. the sceanerie looks like the pictures but nothing is better then seeing it in real life. I will post a lot of pictures of my trip when i do find a sweet internet connection that is free. So far I haven't went job searching in Sydney, Im just enjoying and getting to know the huge city and getting to know the fellow backpackers. Possibly monday I will be leaving up east coast with a few backpackers I met. Tomorrow is a beach day hopefully the weather will co-operate. Tonight is Trivia night, hopefully there is not too many Geographical questions cause my knowledge is very slim. Although I am learning so much everyday about this wonderful world we live in. I have a feeling that this journey may not end with only traveling the full Canada and Australia. I may have a bug, the traveling bug, kinda wish i would of done this earlyer in life. but definetly glad of the decision I have made so far with my life. Untill next time.

Cheers

Alberta Alberta

2010-11-09T09:39:00.000-08:00

I spent 5 nights in beutifull Cochrane Alberta at my wonderfull Matante Monique's house. It was better then a 5 star hotel. And she did spoil me with wonderfull foods and transportation services everywheres. I wanted to post pictures but presently im at a Hostel in Downtown Vancouver with terrible wireless speeds and it would always fail. so ill post some when i reach better signal. It was great to hang out with my aunt. She wasint around PEI while we grew up as kids so here was my chance to finally torcher her. kidding. we had a good time and did plenty of things together, she brought me to her friend Trisha's farm. We went horseback riding. I was riding the horse named Fabio, a real lady's man. Deffinetly could use some advice from this studd. again kidding. We went for a good hike about 6 km in and 6 out on the the Johnson's Canyon trails. We seen Ink Pots at the end where we turned around. Very indescribable, Moving sand like quicksand under water bubbling and boiling look to it in a pool of greenish blueish water that stays at a constant 4 degrees C year long. That was a sweet hike and of course the next day we went for an other hike along Forgetmenot pond, very very nice views all around you is mountains in both hikes. it was a little cloudy both days but not too bad, and after that hike. Monique brought me to this amazing East Indian Restaurant called Mehtab East Indian Cuisine. for the appetizer we had Veg Pakora, for the main meal with unreal garlic bread, we had spicy lamb meat, buttered chicken and rice. These meats where mixed into sauces I have never tasted in my life before. Very new wonderful flavours that i really enjoyed. and to top it off a desert. Gulab Jamun. looks like timbits with an unreal hot sauce, my guess there was brown sugar honey and ginger in it. Oh and i had Vietnamese take out on an other day. really good as well, not quite as flavour full as the east Indian foods. will be tough to beat. that is my task for today in Vancouver to find a Sweet restaurant and Explore the city. maybe find some Sandals.

Oh the 15 hour bus ride to vancouver through the mountains was very nice. Was unable to sleep on the bus. As for my first hostel experiance well,,, was ok, loud outside and indoors. but Its Downtown vancouver, there is noise and stuff going on everynight of the week. I just crashed straight to bed last night when I arrived at 10:30 ish, was exhausted. Might go find a pub or something tonight, well see. Peace

Halloween weekend in Ottawa

2010-11-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

the Parliment with snow

The Joker

Stranger with Lianne from PEI

Friendly crew of strangers on the street

a few of the Miners where in Ottawa with big bird and Edward scisor hands

Can you spot Justin Beaver

Corn ''mike'', Gumball machine ''Dan'', Wyning baby drinking wine''pat'', Karatee girl''Sophie''

Look out for the Tornado. good job Mel

China in Ottawa

After Saunder's farm we went to The beer store. place your order at the counter and they wip it out to ya. Here is Mike and Remi Theriault debating and what beer to purchase. Remi won and also Remi payed haha, thanks bud. If ever you need a professional photographer, he is your man.

At Saunder's Farm we had some Award winning organic beer. Beau's

Haunted wagon ride. Ahhhh

Lots of work into it. Saunder's farm is Basically open durring October. It cost 20 bucks and we watched part of a play, a preaty good wagon ride pulled by a tractor with variouse objects and scary characters scaring us. They had a decent haunted house and a spooky envirement. Great spot to bring the kids if they want nightmares. ahh wasint too scary. had a good time

Musée de la Nature... Ottawa

2010-10-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

Foggin Montréal

2010-10-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

Now In Ottawa. Took the bus a little more then 2 hours. Best experience out of Montreal was when Danielle and her friend Mel took me out to a restaurent called l'Academie. The food was groovy, had a salmon pasta alfrado based, magnific. but before that we went to a ''couche tard'' corner store that sells alcool. Bought a bottle of cheep wine and brought it to the restaurent. its a BYOB restaurent. I guess a lot of them around Montreal are like that. bring your own wine. sweet deal. I never knew it excisted. I also introduced me to the metro and subway system. seems complicated at first but its preaty simple. would take me a little while to get used to. Now I am in Ottawa at my brother mike and his girlfriend mel's crib, actually Wendover, 40 min outside of Ott. It took the bus a little more then 2 hours from Mtl. I went from sleeping on a fouton to sleeping on a air matress on cement floor, I had the best sleep in a while. After stoping for lunch at dusty's for lunch on Parc st. had a greek salade with a sandwich au Jambon. I ordered in french and the waitress started to try english but i refused to order in english. She really had a hard time understanding i wanted it on brown bread. we got it figured out eventually and the food was really good. Keeped on walking and after about 5 hours of hiking around the city, finally found the University of Montréal, only problem is that its 4pm. and Danielle's course was only done at 5:45pm that day. so I sat on a bench with my headphones on my ears, battery's where dead since the train ride. It made me look occupied headbanging around town. in the picture bellow we see my friend Elliot and I waiting for the courses to finish.

steep hill I climbed for nothing, thinking i was going in the good direction. cul de sac

statue

Sweet old buildings and old houses everywheres. I was glad I got lost so it gave me the chance to view a bunch of sceans and gave my quads and calfs a good workout.

Finaly roads

still in that park

In Montréal, I arrived at the end of the long train ride. left at 5pm Moncton monday oct 25, arrived in motreal at 11am tuesday, oct 26 with maybe 3 hours of sleep in me. Economie class is hard to sleep in. So now the hunt is on, to find Université de Montreal, in this picture I found myself lost after already a a good hour of walking with all my gear. somewheres behind McGill University in the parc. I met soo many joggers in this park who where smiling at me. Not sure if it was because of my stunning good looks or cause they knew I was lost with my 50 lbs backpack and a carry on being lugged around the middle of a city park.

I can see Montréal somewheres in the fog

Neeto speedo bridge

Arriving near Drumondville

Graffiti

lots of training wheels at this spot

In the train leaving Moncton

weekend in moncton

2010-10-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

The weekend in Moncton was great. Thank you Gerald and Louise for the comfy couch. Friday was a evening out with friends at the rouge which included flaming shots, a bit of drinking and pizza eating. yesterday was a relaxing day watched a movie and used time to organise a bit my trip. Today included a bit of cutting the lawn with Gerald, little bit of mountain biking, and a intense game of squash vs. Annick. I have never played this sport before, I guess the opportunity was never much available in our region. It was really fun except the part of losing to a girl. Tomorrow evening I am taking the train to Montreal.
Peace

finished... really?

2010-10-23T13:50:00.000-07:00

stored the bike away till whenever

Put the toolbox away till whenever.

After being at Hemphill GM for around 5 years, 3 years full time as an automobile technician. Months where going by quick and weeks and days were repetitive circles and I didint see anyway out of it. It was the time in my life's journey to say my goodbyes. It was a great last day of work, got a breakfest wrap, homebaked cookies, and a lunch. Small gestures are never forgoten. I had a blast over the years through the good and bad times. I am only on this planet once and want to take advantage of it the most possible and see the most I can out of it.

Packing up junk

lets go

Thanks giving weekend

2010-10-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

Family over eating pumpkin pie right after a big turkey supper.

Brother Nick in 40 years, or wait...

That Saturday Night

2010-10-14T18:30:00.001-07:00

Fundraiser for The Evangeline Rink that burnt down last April. Wich price is right. Of course myself and a few friends had to be the beuties. heres a few pics

difficult relief

2010-10-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was a very interesting one. I worked Saturday morning from 8 to 12, and could barely concentrate on my job, thankfully it was just a bunch of oil changes and simple tasks. At 11;45 a.m. I gave a well written up letter to my service manager and then was followed by a short deep chat about our life, and where I am at with my life. He was supporting my final decision in following my dreams and traveling across Canada then making it to Australia. At 25 years old, no girlfriend no kids, no home. Why not? and Is mechanical work the type of job i want to be doing for the rest of my life? The whole dealership knows what my plans are and that i will be departing from them very shortly. I have had lots of great days and memories working at the Hemphill gm dealership in Summerside PEI.

So that's just a short update. Oct 22 is my last work date. this week will be busy planning and buying last minute things. next week will be serious packing and cleaning my toolbox, bringing her home for a while.

The plan is to be in Moncton the weekend of Oct. 22 and 23 then hitchhike or take the bus to Ottawa from there.

Terry Fox Bridge Run

2010-09-28T18:10:00.000-07:00

Festival Acadien Abram-Village 2010

2010-09-13T16:44:00.000-07:00

Pat, Joce, Mike

(The Brothers, Mike, Nick, Pat)

I am writing this blog in french. Screw les anglais, nah jkid yink. Le Festival Acadien est facilement la weekend qui rapport la victoire sur les meilleur weekends de l'été, epuis c'est une bonne maniere a mettre l'été en dormi pour un autre ans. Tout sorte de amis et famille de partout autour du Canada et meme ju sur yen a qui decendon de autres pays pour ce beau festival. Un gros succès comme toujours. Beaucoup de bierre, Beaucoup d'acadien et beaucoup de fun. javais pas mon camera avec moi sta weekend la, so merci a eux qui on pris les photos que jai schoolé de facebook.Yolande Williams (Jennifer Hedger) Patrick Arsenault (Darren Dutchyshen)

Sheldon... Uh Oh! Le Taxi Acadien

Évangéline et Gabriel

TSN and Kraft Rocks

2010-08-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

Maybe I was Dressed up as one of Kraft's leading killer sub group of foods. The KOOL Aid Man. By Law I am unable to say if this is true or not. I even had to delete pictures that where taken of the Kool Aide Man not fully dressed.

As I was sitting on the toilet upstairs in my parents house, Ive decided to take the afternoon off and do a little volunteering when TSN and Kraft came to our Evangeline Region. I didn't do much volunteering, helped out setting up food stations, put a few signs up here and there. I was pumped about viewing the 25000 dollar check presentation from Kraft going towards the building of our new rink. Actually we gave 5000 of it back to Georgetown who didn't expect it. They where the community that we were up against for the main prize.

I enjoyed watching the tsn camera crew in action filming the live show of sportscenter with Darren Dutchyshen and the Gorgeous Jennifer Hedger. here are a few pics of that wonderful day.

The Backpack

2010-08-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

I never told ya what type of backpack i got. I got it online on the Mountain Equipment Co-op Website, they shipped directly to the house. it was sweet. Its a MEC Ibex 80L. Pretty extreem pack and top stuff de top quality. the cost tax in came to 192.00. then i bought a toothbrush, sunscreen, lip balm sunscreen protector jimmy rig. a microfiber towel that is extreem compactable that wipes the naked body then dryes with ease. Id like to say thanks to Marz who donated a Canada patch for my bag. i just gotta sow it on the pack. I did also buy a couple of patches for other carrie bags from the MEC website. The plan is to maybe fill it 40 L taking off and by the time i buy stuff and ill be living in my pack. Quickly the pack will fill itself up with dreams, aspirations, souls, gummy bears, clothes and confusion.

compressed somewhat Mode

80L mode

finaly an Update

2010-07-31T17:54:00.000-07:00

The trip is back on, I ran a 5km run against my soul and won. I finaly went to the surgeon earlyer this month and he said he thinks it was a bad sprained knee of somesort. A miniscule tear would hurn when I do this he said then inserted his fingers underneath my knee cap. well thats what it felt like. The knee feels good now. no pain but just a little ackward tingling sensation by times or if im low and do certain movements. but that willl not stop me from taking the trip of a lifetime oh no it wont. So with the money i saved up to go i kinda bought a bike from my buddy Pierre Richard. so Im saving up money again to take off sometime in october. Summers on Prince Edwards Island are unreal. with all the camping, concerts, golfing, Lobster. Its a good place to be durring these summer months. Heres a few photos of part of the summer. And I will be updating more frequently now that where back on track.

trip on hold

2010-03-09T18:26:00.000-08:00

I love hockey, but some days one wishes he would never of started playing. Around January, I fell on the ice and twisted my knee. Still hasn't healed. Apparently I most likely have a meniscus tear (type of cartilage torn in the joint). I was told to play no more hockey, or extreme sports. Heck i can't even run properly. It could cause greater damage if i continue on being hard on it. Possibly, the only fix is surgery because there is barely any blood circulation in a cartilage that is required for the self healing process. Currently I am taking physiotherapy once a week and waiting for more answers on when I get to see a surgeon. There is unfortunately a long wait.

With this being said, sadly I can't risk leaving while my knee is in a unstable condition. I am very disapointed. So now once again, im lost at life.