Wow!! Jenn got in more trouble than I thought. It hink there was a phone call home for this one since she insisted on trying to lie about it and that didn’t work. She gradually gave it up and this probably would be a great commercial for telling the truth straight off rather than hiding the truth, especially when there are witnesses in your room… not to mention the guard that saw her. It is comforting to know that they are looking out for our well being considering the fact that it could have been anyone trying to get into our room in the middle of the night.
As we walked to breakfast, there were many people crying as many kids were deported this morning back to the U.S. The kids from New York who were going back were caught purchasing and consuming alcohol, the Mainers were caught with drugs.
We ended the day with a travel day down to Coloundra. We were staying at another Rydges Oisis Hotel. I was not feeling well at all. I believe it might be some food poisoning from the crocidile soup I had. It was really bad but I’m trying to get through it. Kenny, Nick, and I were in a room together. I couldn’t keep anything down all day… both ends really. We had dinner at a marina in Maloolaba. I didn’t eat anything but I drank a lot.
I was carrying a fever so that and the cold temps sent me shivering. We went to the capricorn caves where we learned about the caves and all the different formations. We sang in the cavern named the cathedral. The national anthem never sounded better. Then we went bouldering in groups while sharing one flashlight.
We finally arrived at the Rydges Resort and it is sweet!! The place is so big and really nice. We have suite rooms with a queen and a full and two pull out couhced. We saw a movie, “Space Cowboys” for the 4th time. I ended up skipping that and mingling with more of my friends getting closer to many of them.
There was some interesting social happenings happening in the many social circles. The day started off with a rocky start but it ended up being very good. We had our longest travel day so far, almost 7 hours. That really sucked – my ass was in a ton of pain and there was some difficulty holding it until we got to a place to relieve yourself even though there was a bathroom on the bus. Jordan used it 8 times with an average of 15 minutes each use.
Also, Jenn was caught by the security people for walking on the roof. She got in loads of trouble. Well, I don’t have too much else to say other than Nick C, Derek D, and Brian R were my new roommates.
Wow I’m really bad about this whole journal thing, it’s been 3 days and I’ve been very busy. Right now, I’m on the coach on the way from South Molle Island to Yeppoon. Now to recap the event that have transgressed since I’ve written last.
We woke up early at Reef HQ on the 29th and packed up. We all slept in the theater all together and watched a really bad movie showing coral and stuff while we were dozing off to bed. We didn’t have becki there for we were on our way to Billibong Sanctuary for a hot breakfast and a look at quite a few native animals. The food was pretty good, then we got our pictures holding koalas, snakes, crocadiles, and wombats. We had a little lesson on salt water crocs.
From there, we traveled to Ayr where we got a civic welcome and a presentation on their area. After that we went farther south to Arlie beach where we rested for a little while. I got a glimpse at what the French Riviera must be like with a few people “sun bathing.” We caught a 5:30 ferry to South Molle Island where we had a little presentation on the island and the resort. Then it was off to dinner and then free time. It was loads of fun.
I roomed with Ronnie, Kenny, and David. The next morning it was 7:00 brecki and then on to beach games like volley ball & a few racing games. That was followed by a presentation by O.U.C.H. (Order of Underwater Coral Heroes). They told us a lot of stuff about the coral I had already heard when we were out at the reef. Lunch followed then a stupid nature walk up Mt. Jeffries which was 3.5km’s from the resort. I must admit that the view from the top was quite awesome.
After that, there was bird feeding and free time til dinner then for free time until 8:00pm when we had a group meeting where we discussed why we wanted to come to Australia and a quick brief on things to come. I helped people through tough stuff.
Then we got to this morning with a 5:30 wakeup call and room cleaning and the packing of bags then moving them to the bottom of the hill from where our rooms were. Some girls were moved to suite rooms because their rooms had broken doors and there were drunkards going around the resort causing trouble. We had a rushed breakfast and we ran to catch the 7:30 ferry.
Once on the coach we were off on a 3 hour trip to a sugar farm where we had lunch and learned about the growing and harvesting fo the sugar crop. There was a 15 minute stop to change money but of course I didn’t have a photocopy of my passport so I couldn’t change any travelers cheques and at the same time, the Bank of America Visa bank system was down with ATMs so I couldn’t get any money and now I’m very mad.
I’ve been at Woodleigh Station for the past two days doing things such as boomerang throwing, swimming in the same river as the “survivors” did. We did some learning about the bush, the animals and normal activities of a farm such as milking cows, wrangling the cattle and dipping them for ticks. We also learned a great deal about Australia and the Outback in general.
I’ll give more info in a second. We went for a bush walk yesterday and saw a beautiful marshland and enjoyed lunch among the numerous cow patties which covered the area. The night before we were treated to a night walk in search of possums and the native ground dwellers such as scorpions, snakes, termites etc. as well as some star gazing from a basaltic ridge. There was a lot of jokes exchanged in among the tents in which we stayed.
I found each morning at Woodleigh very cold as well as the nights in the unheated tents but to our rescue we were supplied with warm sleeping bags. Each meal was prepared for us by the family. Peter and Kate as well as Kate’s brother, Bob, and their parents were incredibly hospitable and worked hard to make us feel at home at their farm.
The most memorable part of the stay was the nightime keepaway or “rugby” and the whip cracking. I got well versed in that art with the expert guidance of Peter. We met Kate’s childred, Brigette who was an absolute expert at the whip and Sam who was a crack comedian. All in all I had a blast during our farmstay at Woodleigh. Whether it was talking to Kate or helping them set up meals or our aboriginal teachers and their tales of the dreamtime. We also saw a wind farm which produced 12 megawatts of power from 21 generators.
Woodleigh Station is a working cattle station of approximately 60 square miles in size with 2,500 head of cattle and around 45 horses. The original settlers came to Ravenshoe in 1877 and Kate’s family came in 1913. It’s approx 20 miles up river from the Survivor set.
Today we had a very cold start and early breaki with a start of to Townsville about 330km from Woodleigh. We first started off with lunch at the Townsville mall then we were off to Castle Hill which was 8 feet short of being a mountain and it gave us a beautiful panoramic view of the surrounding area. From there we sped off to Reef HQ where we are now. It’s a very large aquadrium which gave us dinner showers and where we are going to be sleeping today. Well, that’s all for today.
I was awoken by someone knocking on our door at 7:00am in the morning. It was Brandon and Ronnie wanting to chat. I was definitely not in the mood. I shrugged it off and happened into the shower. Another nasty breakfast and we were off to the great barrier reef. There was rain everywhere and I thought that there would be no end to the downpour.
It quickly subsided and the sun came out. We boarded the “wave piercing” catamaran and we were ready for the 1:30hr ride out to Agincourt Reef, section 6 at around 28 knots. There were many little squalls present in the morning weather. Out on the bow of the boat was where I made my perch with my Hawaiian shirt and wetsuit top and bathing suit bottom. I braved all the squalls and had the time of my life up there.
The sun came out and dried up the all aluminum craft which prompted many friends to come out and join me. We arrived at the reed and since I was in the “experienced group” they put me right into the water. I had the best time out on the reef snorkling. Dana and I event out on semi-submersible boat to view the outer coral and many fish. The is soooo much life out in this barren and desolate place.
I was very sad with the parting of our happy little place in teh middle of the ocean. Oh right, our diving platform was an all aluminum pontoon platform anchored in a lagoon. It can stand a class 4 cyclone. So we came back to the resort and had free time and dinner, then we had more free time. Then I followed Brandon and Christan and did laundry.
I’ll start our by commenting on yesterday’s events. On the flight to Sydney, I ended up getting something like 6 hours of sleep. After that and a change of clothes, I felt much refreshed. There were three movies. They consisted of some weird knight movie and “The Tailor of Panama” with Pierce Bosnan. then it finished up with “Spy Kids.” I talked quite extensively with one of the leaders of the New York delegation and enjoyed the passing of another book… That being Hemingway’s “The Man and the Sea.”
We arrived at Sydney very early in the morning and enjoyed chatting wtih friends and browsing the airport shops during our 2 hour layover. We boarded another 747 but it was a 200, not a brand new 400 like on the way over. I ended up sleeping through everything from push back to the serving of breakfast. Then I watched the in-flight movie which happned to be the same cheesy knight movie that we saw on the way over.
I asked one of the flight attendants for a tour to the flight deck using the excuse of my CAP membership and my strides at the private pilot license. He obliged and I went up to the second level and got a tour of the flight deck of one of the largest planes in the commercial fleet. The airframe’s age was apparent by the complete lack of television instruments. The displays resembled that of a Cessna 182 minus the GPS system. I intended on asking for the same tour of the return trip to LA.
We arrived in Cairns and went through immigration and customs without a hitch. We met our delegation manager, Janice, and sped off to Port Douglas to our hotel, the Rydges Reef Resort. We all felt like sleeping but we were strongly encouraged not to in order to convert to Oz time. After a nice shower and another change, I was ready to explore the resort with one of my roommates, Nick, while the other one, Derek, went out swimming.
There was a great dinner prepared. Another full night of sleep, almost 11 hours and I was ready to tackle the day. We were awoken by the loud phone for a wakeup call at 7 O’Clock. Brecki was served at 8:00 and we were on the bus to Sky Rail, the gondola tour of the rain forest. It was an old Poma six-passenger gondola and we ended up getting off at various stops to see the beautiful forest and magnificent waterfall.
At the other end of the gondola we met the town of Kondura where we found our coach and were wisked off to rain forest station for some Aboriginal culture. We started with a show of traditional dances and then we were shown to different stations such as boomerang and spear throwing and digerydoo playing. I bought one of the most beautiful digerydoos I’ve ever seen.
Then, I found myself in a wildlife park surrounded by kangis and alligators. I got some great shots of those and some beautiful pics of koala bears. I bought dad’s koala… very real, and a road sign to Australia. We did an aquaduck tour of the rainforest at the station and then we were treated to a “mediocre” dinner and a night of bush dancing. I promise I’ll explain more about that when I get home but right now it’s 8:45 and I need sleep.
James M. Connors
I write this aboard our Quantas flight to Sydney while waiting for our plane to push off from the gate. It is 10:42PST – that would be 1:42am EST on Sunday for you guys back home. Today has been a STRESSFUL on!! I awoke this morning to my mom nudging me to consciousness because my alarm clock rarely operates as it should. I rushed through a shower and a mediocre breakfast.
After a short pep-talk with Brian, we were off to PWM (Portland International Jetport). It was about two hours before we boarded the plane but just as we pushed off and the first engine ran up, there was a fault in our MD-88. It took them 15 minutes to finaly get the problem solved but I thought it was odd because Brian had said that there was going to be a mechanical failure of some sort. Well, to make a long story short about that, we took off 15 minutes late at 10:25am EST.
Shortly there after, we arrived at Ohio/Northern Kentucky Airport where we enjoyed a one hour layover. At some point we boarded the 757 that was supposed to take us to Los Angeles. The in-flight move was Heart Breakers with Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sigorny Weaver. the lunch we were provided pretty much sucked. There was a choice of chicken or beef where I opted to take the beef choice that was served with southeast potatoes and string beans topped off with a mocha brownie, a caesar salad and some other stuff. Needless to say the meat wasn’t cooked all that well which prompted me to ditch the meat and go for everything else. To make matters worse… the beef tasted exactly like both the green beans and the potatoes.
We finally arrived in LA after a very short flight, something like 3:45 hours. We gathered our luggage and headed to the bus which we thought was going to bring us to the hotel… this was far from the case. We ended up taking a bus tour of LA County and to top it off, we ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood. We returned to LAX for check-in and waited for boarding our being 747-400 destined for Sydney, Australia.
I have somehow earned the pet name of OZ. They must have gotten it from my dog whose name is Oz. We waited and waited and finally we got on the gosh-darn plane. We ended up pushing back almost 20 minutes late and then spending another 10 minutes taxiing to our runway. THIS PLANE IS HUGE!
Right now we are about a half hour our of LAX with Heart Breakers as one of four in-flight movies. WE ALREADY SAW IT TODAY ahhhhhh… then there is the Tailor of Panama, Spy Kids, and one other. Oh well, dinner has arrived and I think I’m gonna catch some shut eye.
This post is part of James Connors travel journal for my People to People Student Ambassador Program trip to Australia in the summer of 2001. To see all of the posts, click on the Australia button at the top of the website.
Well, it’s been 8 years now since I traveled the silver skies to Australia as part of the People to People Student Ambassador Program. I think it is high time that I encode that trip in the fabric of the internet and share my candid thoughts and writings from that time in my life.
The journal will not be edited except for punctuation and structure to make the story more readable but none of the content is being changed and the awkward sentences are remaining in the log even. I am really excited to revisit my month of exploring the coolest country I’ve ever been to.
If you’re mentioned in here and it’s awkward… I’m sorry In other news, I feel sound way more interesting than I expected!
http://playingforchange.com – From the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music”, comes the first of many “songs around the world” being released independently. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it traveled the globe.
Play For Change – What a wonderful concept. This video and the campaign that goes along with is has been absolutely inspiring. Think about it… not just the technical merits but the message of it. Music is a universal language that we can all speak, that we can all connect to. Our world doesn’t need more war, we need more things in common, more hands to hold, more ways to get to know one another. Play For Change is the beginning of that mission.
Technically, I enjoyed the video too. It’s really cool that the single song can be brought together all over the world and then put together and work beautifully. It’s like the music group, The Postal Service – each musician recorded their track on a tape and then mailed it to the next to record theirs. So too did each of these musicians play their part and then got sliced and diced together.
In other news, I feel sound way more interesting than I expected!
