Meow, Meow! Adelaide Cabaret

With the new hip burlesque shows doing the rounds of New York and London, Adelaide is also bringing back an ol fave in terms of Cabaret.

I went to see 'Meow Meow', who I think was English, spent must of the time draped around audience members and belted out a few french standards inbetween. The show was fun but there was a lot of padding (excuse the pun).

I did meet at my table a local headmaster Rudi, and his wife and brother in law. We all then went across to the festival late night club to watch a good jazz/swing combo called 'The Shuffle club' and danced around with an appreciative crowd. I stumbled home with sax ringing in my ears!

Adelaide update

After feeling a bit in limbo in Noosa, I decided to jump on a plane and get to Adelaide. The easyjet effect seems to be racing around the planet, and JetStar which is an offshoot of Quantas got me there for a pretty good 50 quid.

This city has a reputation for being a bit dull compared to Sydney or Melbourne, but I think that's a little harsh. The centre is pretty and easy to get around, with trams and even a free bus. The locals appear pretty chipper and there seems to always have a festival going on (Currently it's a Cabaret fest).

I was in two minds wether to go straight to Perth, or stop here and take the train. So obviously I've not done either of those options and I've booked on a 4x4 expidition through the red centre. The thought of sharing a backpacker bus full of 18 year olds, made me shiver. But then I found a small company, Heading Bush, which looks pretty good, and we get to sleep under the stars in Swags. Hopefully it should be good fun and the trip will get back on to a good footing after this not so great week. We head out on Monday at oh-my-god o'clock. Nice.

Feeling down? Hug a Koala..

What do you do when things aren't going your way? Do you reach for the biggest box of chocolates and the TV? Grab a bottle of scotch? Practice your rizla rolling skills? Well here's a different method to banish those blues, Go hug a marsupial.

After mocking the big signs advertising Australia Zoo in my last post, I actually decided to visit the place. With an enforced longer stay in Noosa, due to the implosion of the Long Drive CamperVan trip, I was looking for fun things to distract me. Playing around with wild/dangerous animals sounded like an ideal way.

Going to the zoo is a bit of a retro thing these days. Long gone are the times where the only place you'd be able to see wild or exotic animals was going down to your local zoological park. Now with the aid of Animal Planet TV, David Attenborough, and cheap flights to the places they film, why bother with the zoo when you can go to the real thing? And is it really ok to keep wild animals locked up for entertainment?

Also I was intrigued at the cult growing around the late Steve Irwin, self styled Crocodile Hunter. His style was the anti David Attenborough, who thought the best way to help conserve habitats was going in shouting "Crikey!" and wrestling the most dangerous animals there. Until his demise at the tail of a stingray last year, Steve Irwin had built a massive Zoo in his image (and there are literally hundreds of his pictures around the place), after taking over the management of the place from his parents.

Walking around the zoo even on a freezing cold winters day, you get the sense that it is a pretty well run operation. All the animals seem to have a big enough place to live and big fences are kept to an absolute minimum. The zoo prides itself on being interactive and so you can get up close to some of the more fun animals.

This is how I came to be holding a koala in both hands and trying desperately not to sneeze. It seemed content to sit on my arms and look about. The handler looked slightly concerned that I was going to drop the animal but I manage to keep a vague amount of composure before handed back the eucalyptus loving bear back. And I have to say it was great fun.

After that I went around and hugged/patted on the back/scared a few more creatures just for the hell of it. So the hit list included a red kangaroo, a wombat, a two month old calf, a goat and an Indian elephant by the unfortunate name of Bimbo. What I really wanted was to go and say hello to the two beautiful tigers they had, but apparently they'd rip my head off. As I'm quite fond of my head I thought best to not press the issue with the keeper.

The centre of the zoo is the bizarrely named 'Crocoseum'. A three thousand seat semi circle theatre where shows are held twice daily. The one I attended was called 'Wildlife Warriors'. It was a jarring mix of showing animals off, heavy handed environmentalism and badly performed comedy. Shivering against the wind the enthusiastic audience watched various birds, snakes and a grumpy crocodile called Norman (as in Bates, from the Hitchcock 'Pyscho' film). In between exhibits there were prerecorded pieces from the late Steve and his wife Terri. They were telling people how the had to become 'wildlife warriors' and to recycle their rubbish.

The slightly unnerving aspect to the zoo is that Steve Irwin is in most cases still spoken of in the present tense. The pair hosting the Crocoseum show said things like "lets see Steve's second enviro rule" and even said "Thanks Steve!" after the end of a pre-recorded clip. The tag line of the zoo is "The home of the Crocodile Hunter" like they were expecting him to burst through the door any moment with another "Crikey!" and tales of wrestling another unfortunate animal in the bush.

Only if you go to a darkened corner underneath the seating of the Crocoseum will you then find the tributes to Irwin. A length of tatty builders fence has been installed for fans to place pictures, notes and signed khaki shirts with tributes to the man. It was a interesting it was hidden away in a dank corner, easy to miss if you weren't looking for it.

The main thrust of the zoo seemed to be getting you into the merchandising store where a whole host of stuff was for sale. Tea towls, DVD's and action figures of Steve and Terri were all displayed. Also their children, Ben and Bindi seemed to be marketed just as much as Steve was. The store was flogging kids work out videos, magazines and even a whole children's clothing line based on them. It seems that old line of death being a good career move hasn't been wasted on the management of the zoo.

I left the store with a couple of postcards and a stuffed tiger, but my memory of the place will be the koala hug :-)

Noosa, Long Weekend Festival

The high rises of the gold coast have now faded in to the rear view mirror, as I've landed in Noosa, playground of Brisbanites on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. Driving up the motorway I passed huge signs for the ubiquitous Australia Zoo, brainchild of the late Steve Irwin. They've now renamed the road to the zoo "Steve Irwin Way". Crikey! I'm not sure if the stingray responsible for his untimely demise will get any roads bequeathed to it though..

Here in Noosa it's the start of a ten day arts, music and literature festival. They're some big names attending, including Clive James, who seems to be knocking out a book every year at the moment. There's also a bloke who's reinterpreted Herman Melvilles Moby Dick and the new Brenda Blethyn film Clubland showing.

In other news it looks like the cross outback trip is off for the moment. I'm currently looking into alternative ways of seeing the vast nothingness of Oz. One option is the iconic India-Pacific Railway. 3 days on a very big train!

An Australian Las Vegas

The gold coast is every bit as tacky and commercial as you think it will be! With a stretch of swamp south of Brisbane to play with, developers have gone crazy wtih casinos, 5 theme parks and endless clubs and restaurants. All catering for the lowest common dollar.

They seem to be working well though as money floods into thisregion faster than any other. I'm currently at the southern end, picturesquely by the airport. The skyline is dominated by cranes with more high rises going up.

This is comepletely different to Byron Bay. And I've worked out that this is what Byron is the alternative of! Ah well, I might as well check out the tack as I'm here.

When in Rome....

An Alternative to what?

Byron Bay used to be a big backpacker mecca as folk left Sydney and made the trek up the coast to Brisbane and the tropical north. Alternative shops sprang up to cater for this motley bunch and the most famous of these was The Arts factory, hidden from the village by a dusty track and the railway line.

In the 7 years since I was last here things have changed. It is not just the preserve of eurotrash and drop-outs. Smart new shopping precincts have been built, smart restaurants on the foreshore have opened up and the legendary Arts Factory has built a bloody day spa at the front of the lodge. The smart set have now come in with a lot of cash and the means to smarten up the place. The cafe down the road listed 15 different varieties when I asked for a cup of tea this morning. Expensive SUV's are as common as campervans on the streets of what now is quite a large town.

I took this up with Dave, our english mechanic who is having to fit a new clutch to the ever more problematic CamperVan. He took over the garage 6 months ago after living in a small village on the South Island of New Zealand for a few years.
"I'm probably one of the few people to move to Byron to drop back in" He cheerfully said as he looked at the engine with increasing concern.

Dropping back in seems to be an easy option from what was a drop-out community in the 80's and 90's. There are almost 300 businesses on the same trading estate as his work shop. All seem to be doing great guns. From cookie bakers to surf board manufacturers, all can make a living as the alternative gets sold back to the mainstream with a side order of carrot cake.

The old magic seems to have been diluted by the ongoing commercialisation of the town, but the tea I can report was lovely.

I bet this looks nice in the summer....

So life on the open road has begun again. After two weeks of sliding back into city life, it's back on the road, except this time I'm driving. The last minute garage tune up to the van has been a life saver especially through today's storms along the east coast. New tyres have stopped us from aqua-planing on a couple of occasions when cross winds have hit.

The east coast of Australia is probably the most known to backpackers who travel here. There are many tour operators and bus companies ferrying people from Sydney through Brisbane up to Cairns. The joy of having a campervan, even one which has a sticky 1st gear and is almost impossible to get into reverse, is that you can go to places off the beaten track.

Seal Rocks is one such place. Lying on a headland about 100km south of Port Macquarie, it's a beautiful little fishing village at the edge of a national park. It boasts one shop, a caravan park and a 19th Century lighthouse. It also has an excellent point break for surfing. Unfortunately for us there was no swell so we couldn't test out the body boards we'd brought along. It's an excellent little find and not for the first time in the Australian winter I've caught myself saying " I bet this place is brilliant in the summer..."

Life in the van is an interesting learning experience. It takes time to get to know what you can and can't do with a vehicle which is almost 30 years old and has done nearly 267,000 kilometers. They'll be a fair few more before we get to Perth. Looking at the map it's almost impossible to comprehend how vast this country is. I think it's about the same as driving from Glasgow to Istanbul. But then I haven't done that journey either.....

Mike and Khaleen's long drive. T -1 day

Are mechanics dodgy the world over? Why can't they give an honest answer posed by someone who knows nothing about engines (ie me) ? I was thinking this as some grease monkey at the corner auto centre was telling us some rubbish about what needed to be done to our campervan. On calling around other garages we knew what he was telling us was wrong and wanted more cash for it. Sensibly we managed to find reverse and drive away.

This week in Sydney myself and ol' Islington drinking buddy Khaleen spent most of our time talking to garages and spending cash in Auto shops, getting our 1978 Toyota Hiace camper van ready to roll across the Country. 1000's of kilometers are ahead of us so it's pretty important that stuff works! It's pretty much sorted now.

In between banging our heads against brick walls I've managed to hook up with some old friends. Chris and Helen moved out here a couple of years back. We met on Wednesday night for a fiercely contested pub quiz at the Kirribilli Hotel on the North Shore. Amazingly we came 2nd, or maybe 3rd. Anyway we won free drinks which was all that mattered!

The next night I managed to meet Serena and Brent who used to be in the much missed Dalston Mansions. It was good to catch up with their lives over a few beers. Good luck with the house hunting!

Anyhoo It's time to go shopping for more essentials for the Campervan; music. An 8gb Ipod is already full but i'm worrying it won't be enough. To the 10 dollar CD store!