Encountering the wildlife

Australia is all about koalas and kangaroos, right? So priority number one was to go to the Koala Sanctuary situated upriver from Brisbane. Of course you could also argue that we had to go there the first day, becuase of Christmas opening hours, but that would be no fun. Personally, I only came to Australia to cuddle a koala. Yep. There is this boat that goes up the Brisbane river to the sanctuary in the morgning, and takes you back in the afternoon. As you go up the river, you get a little information about Brisbane history, and the places we go past. Totally the tourist thing to do, but very pleasant nevertheless. There are some really nice houses along the river, and a big island that is home to a large colony of fruit bats. As we were wandering oaround the Brisbane that evening, we could see large groups of them flying in over the city to eat. Awsome.

Once we arrived at the sanctuary, we were perhaps ridiculously exited by our first meeting with Australian wildlife: a couple of water dragons that had used the pier as a resting spot. They look really cool, and I want one! Sadly, Brisbane decided to show us it’s cool and rainy side, so things were a bit wet. It actually felt like a rainy Norwegian summer day. And we forgot our ponchos at the hotel. We have carried them around for 4 weeks, but we keep on forgetting to bring them whenever they are needed, which, you know, is typical. We didn’t let that stop us of course, so we braved the park, and got to see a bird of pray show, ogle funny Australian animals such as the cassowary, feed kangaroos, and most importantly: cuddle a koala. My koala smelled really nice, and when I commented on this, his keeper told me the smell came from his scent glands, which he uses to attract females. It is obviously working

After being perpetually damp (and a little chilled) at the sanctuary, we went back down the river, changed our clothes for something slightly warmer, had a huge lunch in Chinatown, and headed off on the walk through the city centre suggested by our Lonly Planet guide. Brisbane is very clean, and seems to have lots of room, so the tall buildings are not towering over you like they do on i.e. Manhattan. It seems very well planned for modern western life, and leaves me with the impression that it was all built during the last 20 years or so. Even the old buildings look kinda new

Our wanderings eventually led us to the botanical gardens at dusk, and we were in an excellent position to see all the flying foxes come in over the river. I was just waiting for Batman to appear amongs them… I like bats! At this time, we were becoming slightly concerned about our dinner options, as we were afraid that the restaurants would all close, even though it was just 7 in the evening. Making our way back over and up the river, we were informed by friendly locals that there would be a firework show on the river in an hours time, so we risked our dinner by slowing down and joining the crowd. The show was well put together, and it almost gave me a feeling of Christmas. I just lacked a coat, a hat, gloves and icy cold feet for the feeling to be complete. We then had to hurry, and barlely made it to a restaurant in time

Mario and I then spent quite some time on the hotel computers, catching up on our blogging. The hotel charges ridiculous rates, although that is no surprise. We have now found a better place to work from though – a 24/7 internet cafe. 24/7! It doesn’t close at 19:00 like all the others, and it is even open on Christmas Day, when the rest of Brisbane is a ghost town. The internet never closes, and these guys knows it. Excelent place!

Also, I have spotted the local IBM office very close to our hotel. So I could go to work. If I really wanted to

Re-entering Civilization

2 days ago, we flew into Brisbane, and as my mobile is once again operative and the bedsheets are no longer damp, we are well and truly back in the world we were born in. We also have internet connections that are up to par, and do not require a great dose of Island Time patience – excellent! We flew in with Solomon Airlines, and consequently we were 3 hours delayed. We might have suffered from a mild shock if it had been on schedule. Going through all the Australian border security, I once again had to defend the coffee I bought in New Caledonia (I have done that every time we changed country since I bought it), and Ivan ended up doing a lengthy chat with a officer on duty. Naturally. Also, we had to explain what we had been doing in the Solomons. Once we were through though, Ivan got a very enthusiastic greeting from his girlfriend, Olya, who had spent the last 2 days waiting for us in Brisbane. They were very sweet

After settling in at our hotel, we were feeling pretty peckish and thoght we’d have some dinner. Not an unreasonable request, you might say. Even though it was just after 22:00. It was after all a Saturday. Brisbane is a pretty large city. It should be doable, right? You all agree? Good. Cause most kitchens in Brisbane seem to close somewhere between 20:00 and 21:00, even on Saturdays. No food for you! I am sure the concierge at the hotel tried to call every restaurant known to her in the city centre, to no avail. Kitchen closed. Even Oslo has places where the kitchen is open until 23:00! I never thought I’d see the day where Oslo upstaged a place like Brisbane. Sigh. However, not all was bleak, as we did manage to locate a place with an operating kitchen after wandering up Queen Street – the main street in Brisbane. Afterwards we went for a little stroll, and a drink, just to get a feel for Brisbane night life. It was fairly bustling but not over crowded, and also very laid back. Actually, very nice.

We didn’t stay up too late, since one of the few things that we did do when lazing about at Fatboys was to plan our stay in Brisbane, and on the schedule for our first full day in Australia was… The Koala sanctuary!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas here from Australia! We had kangaroo and crocodile for dinner today, to celebrate the occasion.

Updates on activities to date here in Brisbane will follow in about 10 hours, after some much needed sleep.

– Mario & Erica –

Wrapping up the Solomon Experience

Recap: 20.12.2007 — 20.12.2007

Sadly, the 4 days at Fatboys went by all too quickly, before we had to turn our noses towards Honiara once more. Jemma and Sascha had to return to catch their flight for Bellona on the 21st, which meant leaving the Westeners alone in Honiara for a day and a half. This was just the way the schedule worked out, as the inter-island flights are usually overbooked this time of year with all the islanders trying to go home for Christmas.

As is standard procedure when dealing with Solomon Airlines, we had the hotel call the airport roughly one hour before we would have to leave to check for any delays, as you seriously do not want to spend more time at the local “airport” than what is absolutely necessary. There is a reason for it being called an “airstrip terminal” and not an airport And as anything can happen here at the Solomons, we were told that the flight would be 30 minutes early. What?!? I am still puzzled as to why they could not hang about on the airstrip to get back on schedule, but apparently not. This message struck like a bomb, resulting in a mad dash to get everything ready, collect all our expenses, and to pay our bills before rushing off in the boat. As it turns out, we actually forgot to pay for the dive and snorkeling, so we need to sort that out somehow.

Once at the airstrip terminal, we waited. And sweated like pigs in the heat. And waited some more. And you know? The plane was not early coming in after all. So much for trying to be smart, people! Checking in, we had to weigh ourselves in addition every item destined to fly, as these things really matter when you’re on such a small flight. Interesting experience. And the weight of your luggage, hand luggage and yourself is duly shouted by the person doing the weighing, and noted down by the person behind the desk, halfway across the terminal building. If you’re embarrassed about your weight, you shouldn’t fly from Gizo!

Halfway to Honiara, we did a stop on some island, and I felt that this little airstrip was the pinnacle of island airstrip mentality. The airstrip was all grass, and not primarily hard packed dirt, as they had in Gizo. And it was pretty clear that our flight interrupted the local children in the middle of an important football match, as a bunch of them were impatiently passing the ball back and forth, waiting for the flight to get out of their football field. Rather, I should say as impatient you can be, if you are born and bred on Island Time. Then, for take off we had to wait while two of the locals tried to catch their dog that was apparently using the airstrip as her special playground. I think the dog had a fantastic game of catch-me-if-you-can, but at least the results were less macabre than if they didn’t catch her, and she decided to play a game of bite-the-wheel as we went up the runway. I had no idea you could put an airstrip to such diverse use

On our return to Honiara, we were once more treated to the exiting side effects of local politics, as parliament had just elected a new president. Everyone we talked to seemed to be very pleased with the new president, and they were feeling optimistic that this one would be really good for the Islands. At the same time the mood in Honiara was a bit restive, with lots of people milling about – faced by an equal amount of military and police presence. Hmm. Apparently there were some worries that all the unemployed people would use this as an excuse to do some more rioting, torching and looting. All of Honiara’s shops were closed, and you could see several people that were obviously guarding them. Some of Jemma’s family were even locked in a Chinese shop for quite some time, as the shop immediately closed when the election news were published. Apparently not a pleasant experience, as there were no aircondition. However, as there was heavy rains in the afternoon, the rioting accumulated to a bit of rock throwing off a bridge. Nobody wants to riot during heavy tropical downpour

Jemma’s stepmother, Marie-Louise, works for RAMSI, and bought an old truck of theirs to use when transporting larger groups of family and friends, and we used this dubious vehicle when we went to have our farewell dinner at the local Indian restaurant. Usually, the car is pretty well suited to it’s task, but perhaps not when driving through town at night, after a meal? There is no way the locals could see that we were in fact not Australian RAMSI soldiers. And as Australian RAMSI soldiers aren’t very popular with the crowd that were threatening to riot, we had the slightly chilling experience of someone throwing rocks at us as we went by.

Oh, and the boys tried to chew some betel nut on this last day. Apparently it first tasted foul, but after you work it for a while, it’s not so bad. I decided to refrain from having my teeth stained a rusty red…

Our solo day in Honiara was mind-numbingly boring, as it rained all day, and we had nothing to do but swim a bit in the hotel pool and watch TV — a first in 3 weeks… We did try to go to the Lime Lounge for some quality brunch, but they were closed for Christmas. Instead we ended up in a slightly less appealing eaterie in some rundown building – but hey! It was food. Would have been nice to spend that day at the Fatboys instead!

Our final day in Honiara passed much the same way – by hanging around waiting for our plane to leave. It was 3 hours delayed — of course.

Deep blue sea

Recap: 18.12.2007

Up once again after breakfast, we received the news that an urgent e-mail awaits us by Grant. Sadly because the mail was written in another language he was unable to inform me of the content of the mail, and since his printer did not work he could not hand me a copy of the mail. Sascha and Jemma had lost their bags the day before during their flight to Gizo, and were awaiting the arrival of their bags in Gizo city today. So we decided all of us take a trip into Gizo city, to check out the city, mail and other tidbits. All except Erica that rightfully argued that the city would be much too hot on this beautiful day.

Traveling in dinghy we were surprised and delighted to see dolphins swim along our boat as we head for Gizo city. This would not be the last time we would have the joy of seeing dolphins.

In Gizo Sascha and Jemma’s bags were waiting for them, and they were happy of the thought to finally change to a clean pair of clothes and other much missed necessities. I got to check our mail and quickly realised that the “urgent” mail was a request from our family…
“what’s happening… we haven’t seen any updates on the blog for days?”

Gizo city is the second largest city in Solomon Islands. As we have learnt from our travels in the South Pacific the second largest city is usually a whole different ball game from the capital. The city consists of a main street with small shops on both sides of the road, and can be comfortably walked through in 10 minutes. There is a market that sells fruit and vegetables, and a variety of coloured fish you did not know existed. Some people gamble along the street; the dealer announcing the results in a megaphone to give an authentic feel to the game, although the 5 people around him would probably have an easier time playing if he had dropped the electronic assistance.

As we were in the city we thought we might visit the local dive shop and have a talk with them before our dive with them the following day. Entering the dive shop we find it empty, and ask the people outside who we may talk to regarding our dive. One of them rush of to get hold of the person that may help us… half an hour later a Swedish woman appears.

Erica and I have come to the conclusion that people that choose to stay in the South Pacific become affected by Island Time and gradually change. After some time in the tropical climate you will notice that your hair colour becomes naturally bleached. Some think this is a result of your hairs exposure to sun and salt water, but we have come to a different conclusion. The affect of Island Time is like a slow brain drain and with time makes you “blond”. Our Swedish woman was blond.

Recap: 19.12.2007

For the first time during our stay at Fatboys, the 19th of December we finally got around to have breakfast. The fact that we got up early was not by accident though; this was the day of our dive at the nearby reefs. Sascha and I were going scuba diving, Ivan and Jemma were snorkeling and Erica; she was very unsure how this dive trip would affect her phobia of sharks. I tried to calm her and reason with her and eventually she decided that she would at least accompany us in the boat.

The reefs had been heavily affected by the aftershocks and tremors of the tsunami, and sadly had the look of a graveyard of corals. Still it did not seem to have affected the fish population and we got to see plenty of colourful tropical fish. It was great to scuba dive again! Sascha and I got to see Clown fish, Barracudas, Sting rays… and a shark.

Emerging from our dive Sascha was eager to tell everyone about what we had seen, and before I could stop him he tells everyone of our encounter with a shark… in front of Erica. Erica went from a nice tanned look to pale white. Drifting in a small boat in the South Pacific she started to feel very uncomfortable. While having a calm talk to Erica we head off to a nearby island for lunch. The delicious fruit we had for lunch must have helped as one hour later Erica was back in the boat. One point to Erica – Zero to shark phobia!