#13

#13: Hitchhike

This is hopefully going to be one of the least exciting entries of the list. So I'll try to keep it short.

I put down hitchhiking with no idea of how it might come about. The whole hitchhiking thing seems a bit pointless when you're travelling around in a van, but its something I'd never done before so it got a guernsey.

Only a week or so into the trip I found myself in Cape Le Grand National Park in Esperance heading out on a 15km hike. Plan was to get to the last beach on the hike and get a lift home from one of the families who would be picnicing there.

Hike went well. Awesome countryside, big hills, massive bays, steep hills, tough going. Everything you'd want from a 15km hike. And I managed to find this beach (probably the best among a bunch of other amazing beaches)

So after about five and a half hours I reached the end. I was stuffed, but pretty happy. Except unlike the day before there was absolutely noone around. So I waited half an hour. No deal. Walked back to the start of above beach, hoping for a lift with one of the families there. Same story. Another long walk back along the above the beach (its a big beach) to the campsite. Where noone was leaving.

So I took off down the main road for anoter 20min or so before I hitched a ride with the first guy going past. Was a miner from Kal. Good egg.

So overall I ended up walking 21km through some pretty tough country, and was absolutely rooted. And while I now appreciate the art of the hitchhker, I don't see why they don't just get themselves a van.

update: perth to adelaide

Figured I might as well put something up to let everyone know what I've been up to. Basically, not a lot. Which has been amazing. I've been on the road for almost 3 weeks, and so far it has been exactly what I hoped for.

Haven't been partying it up or getting into too many adventures (well not the drunken shenanigans that normally qualify for adventures), but I've met some super cool people, checked out some super sweet spots that I would never had heard of otherwise, let alone visited, and I've just generally been having a ball.

I'm currently in Victor Harbor, about an hour and fifteen minutes South of Radelaide. Its pretty chilled out and I'm just kicking back until I head up to Adelaide again tomorrow to get my Aus day party on, and then I'll head over to Vic to get to Melbs for Laneway on the 5th. From there I imagine the shenanigan ratio will increase significantly.

Highlights so far include everything. But more specifically:
- Kicking it with Steve, Ben and the President of the State Upper House over homemade pizza in Cowaramup on my first night.
- Hanging out with Nolly for the first time in ages in Albany. And the Albany windfarm. Windfarms and windmills are my new favourite thing.
- Esperance. Wow. Hadn't been there since I was a little tacker. Can't recommend it enough. Has to have at least 10 beaches which shit on anything Perth and most of the rest of WA has to offer. And LeGrand National Park is so awesome its hard to describe.
- Norseman to Ceduna. About 1300km of pretty much nothing all the way across the Bight. And its totally awesome! Wouldn't exactly say its all that pretty, but its something that everyone should do. Just the idea of driving right across the bottom or Australia left me with a smile on my face the whole way.
- Elliston. Tiny little fishing town midway down the Eyre Peninsula. I heard a little rumour there were waves. There were. Amazing waves. And a nice little town to boot.
- Adelaide. Ridiculously cool town. Good things about Adelaide: it has awesome super mega markets right in the middle of town, there is a sweet pub on every corner, its hard to get lost, staying in North Adelaide (a ridiculously cool part of a ridiculously cool town.)

And a few numbers about the trip and the list so far:
Perth to Victor Harbor (straightest route possible): 2779km
Perth to Victor Harbor (my route): 4875km
No. of cars overtaken: 2
Triple J stations listened to: 7 (out of at least 20)
New foods tried: 2
Wins on pokies: 0
Surfs in each state and blocks of each state's beer: 2/2
New items on the list: Find a perfect, secret beach not marked on any map, and Listen to every song on my ipod (nano, thank god) from A-Z.

Peace,
christo

p.s. Current beard status: embarrassing

#30

#30: Meet someone famous

FF: Flayva Flav
FJR: Fat Jerk Roadie

Setting: christo and Downsy are side of stage watching Public Enemy at Southbound. Christo is losing his shit, holding the $3 clock they bought the day before as a joke.
(FF pauses mid song, looks over, points at christo's clock, points to his own clock, then back at christo and gives a massive smile, showing off his gold grills. christo loses his shit even more.)

2 minutes later: (FJR comes out of nowhere and grabs the clock off christo.)
christo: Hey, what the hell?
FJR: I'm going to wear it around my neck later. (Grins like the clock stealing asshole that he is, walks to the other side of stage)

5 minutes later: (FF comes to side of stage groupies and high fives everyone. Gives christo a sweet bro-hug)
christo: I'm so sorry Flav. That guy stole my clock.
FF: Is it even yours?
christo: Yeah, we got it in Perth. From K-Mart. (christo is very drunk and excited and is making little sense)
FF: Who took it?
christo: That FJR in the shit hat with the shit flames on the side of it.
FF: I'll get it back. (FF starts a new song)

30 minutes later: (set has finished. FF goes to FJR. FJR produces clock and they start taking photos with it. At this stage christo is accepting that FJR has won the day. FF pats FJR on the shoulder and goes to walk off stage. At the last second he turns back, grabs the clock, runs across stage and gives clock to christo. christo loses the plot completely and proceeds to tell everyone the story, over and over and over again for the rest of the weekend, and probably the rest of his life)
christo: FLAYVA FLAAAAAVVV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(l-r) Downsy, Christo (holding clock) and the Flav

#29

#29: Ride in a helicopter.

Myself and my good friend Downsy won a competition to fly to Southbound in a helicopter, along with a bunch of other sweet perks. I figured it'd be a pretty big deal and since its close enough to when I left it qualified for a position on the list.

So on the day of Southbound we fronted up to Jandakot airport in our sweet new captain's hats and aviators. To say we were excited would be a little bit of an understatement. We got our good mate Pilot Mike to take the obligatory happy snaps in front of the chopper, and cracked open our helicopter beers.

And then it all went wrong.

Pilot Mike told me there would be much less turbulence than on a normal plane flight. Pilot Mike is a liar. It certainly wasn't super rough, but it was just enough that after about 15 minutes into the flight I was feeling a bit queasy. 45 minutes in I was getting the sweats and was starting to get even paler than normal. An hour in and my head was buried in the complimentary in-flight sick bags.

But once my breakfast steak was dispatched with I felt a heap better, just in time for our flight to pass over Busselton and the Southbound campsite. We went in and scored our sweet deluxe tent, private shower and toilet, VIP (and later backstage access all areas) passes and just generally lived it up. But I was definitely dreading the ride home, knowing full well that after a weekend of Southbound shenanigns I would already be feeling pretty average.

Which is why when Ivana (our minder for the weekend) gave me our final part of the prize I was over the moon. "Apparently one of you got a bit sick on the way down, so we've organised for a private plane to take you back."

Awesome.