"We'll Fly To Sydney For A Holiday, A Sunny Christmas Day"

It had been months since I had a month sabbatical planned starting in mid-October, and I still hadn't figured out what I was going to do. Then one day at work I was listening to 'Arthur' by The Kinks. The song "Australia" came on. About ten minutes later I purchased my ticket to Australia.

I was there for nearly a month and traveled between Sydney and Cairns, and most destination points in between including: Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay, Fraser Island, the Whitsunday Islands. I had the experience of a lifetime and have stories that could fill many pages of the Shore Fire Blog. Instead of writing an epic travel diary (which I've already done), here are some of the most memorable highlights:

• First five days or so: Jetlag. Not that wimpy jetlag you get from Europe. This was real jetlag from a 15-16 hour time difference. Rather than toss and turn more one morning, I decided to get up, take a walk down to the beach and take some pictures of the sunrise in Bondi Beach:Apparently Australians eat kangaroos. Ew:
• Surfing with dolphins in Coffs Harbour. I was surfing a nice point break one afternoon in Coffs Harbour when about 10 feet in front of me I see a fin pop out of the water. My first thought is, shark! Then I noticed another and another, and realized they were dolphins by the way the fins were bopping up and down in the water. I tried to get them to surf a wave in with me but they blew me off. Typical locals. Sadly I have no pictures of this (don't have a water proof camera) so you're gonna have to take my word for it. Pretty amazing.

• Birthday in Byron Bay. Don't remember much from this but apparently I had a good time.

• 4WDing and camping under the stars on Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island. It's about 120 km long by like 15 km wide. I've never seen so many stars in my life. My fun was somewhat stifled by a Dutchman who was crazy paranoid about driving through saltwater. While it's true that hire companies impose big fines for this, they are renting you a vehicle to DRIVE ON THE BEACH. Of course you're going to go through a little bit of saltwater. Anyway, I can still hear his voice warning me as I drove: "watch aut! saldwada!" Here's a view from the 4WD on way to the beach:
And though the ocean looks beautiful and inviting, you cannot swim in it; it's infested by sharks and stingers. Imagine not being able to swim in this:
• 2 day/night trip to the Whitsunday Islands on a catamaran. The white sand beaches of Whitehaven Beach is surely one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen:
• Being a 39 year old backpacker staying at youth hostels. The kids I roomed with must have thought, "Oh god. Who brought dad with them!!!???!!" Surprisingly I survived this without too many nightmare incidences. However there was this little nugget: there was an Irish couple staying in a private room in my dorm room. At least I think they were Irish. Their accent was hard to decipher as they had lost the ability to form complete sentences. Well, I guess they must have had a fight while out partying because I was woken up at 1:30am to a chorus of "*^@$ off!" "No, you *^@$ off!!" This went on for what seemed like hours. Awesome.

• Election Day in Australia. Once I saw that Obama had won PA I felt safe enough to go out for a quick surf while the rest of the results came in. There was a nice 6 foot swell at Bondi Beach and it would have been a waste spending my last day in Australia inside watching the election results. After surfing I went up to the roof top of my hostel, watched the waves roll in and called a friend of mine in the States, a fellow political junkie.

When it came time for Obama's speech I decided to venture out to find a larger TV than the 12" one in my room (also known as "the smallest TV in all of Australia"). I went to a pub around the corner and as I walked in the door, the opening piano chords to "Let It Be" rang through the mostly empty pub (it was like 3pm on a Weds after all). I asked out loud who played the song, and this guy saunters over (obviously already drunk) and gives me one of those half handshake/half hungs with a smile from ear to ear. Seriously? You can't make this stuff up.