Australia

Within a couple hours of landing in Australia we had already eaten kangaroo meat on the barbi. Tasty. The hamburglin' Rob Daley (Mike's former roomate) and his friends welcomed us to Sydney with a feast. Then Rob took us to his parent's ranch in Kempsey, a small town north of Sydney where beaches nearby are perfect. His parents were kind and welcoming and really spoiled us with delicious meals and big-screen Aussie movies in their living room. We gorged ourselves on so many caramel tarts that our breathing slowed down, labouring under the weight of tart-belly. We coined the term "Kempsey pouch" to describe the distension of stomachs under such heavenly duress. We'll be swimming off the K-pouches for a while.

The Daley hospitality continued in Sydney with Rob's brother Mat, another incredible host. (Mat, we thought of something else for that room -- a Greyhound bus.) We strolled around the city in tourist mode, eating meat pies at the Opera House, didgeridoo lessons on the Harbour Bridge, boomerang tossing in the Botanical Gardens, racing emus on George Street. Regular stuff, mate.

Off to the West Coast on Air Ghetto. Mike picked a great hostel in Northbridge Perth, the surly binge drinking capital of the world. The place was crawling with drunk brawlers. They placed us conveniently in seperate dorm rooms. My roomies were inoccuous but one guy in Mike's room threw up out the window, passed out snoring on a pizza-box pile and another woke him up to pick a fight. Due to the gong show antics, they upgraded us the following night, out of pity.

We took the Greyhound to Monkey Mia. It was supposed to be a 12-hour journey. They managed to stretch it out to 20. The bus was 2 hours late and broke down 4 more times along the way. At midnight, when we were stuck in the cold, dark outback, the driver informed us that the head office had "cancelled our service". No one really knew what this meant, not even the driver. Eventually, a small shuttle bus came to our rescue and took us to Monkey Mia where the dolphins swim up to the beach. We got to feed them a fish each. It was awesome.

Back in Perth, we got to go to the West Coast Blues and Roots Festival, headlined by Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals. Wooooooohoooooooooo. It was an incredible show. (Thorpe says it's fully sick.) Australia has been great. Thanks again, Daleys. How'd you get alladat in dem jeans?