Azorted selection of photos

It is done. I've gone through all the photos I took on São Miguel in the Azores. Most of them went in the bin, but those who made it through to the final can be found here.


As I visited only for a week, I am in no position to judge the Azores as a destination. Still, I have to say that I'd rather go back to Madeira for the third time than return to the Azores.

If you're planning on spending your vacation hiking, São Miguel can be a good choice. Early in the morning there are buses to every corner of the island from the main town, Ponta Delgada. Walk around there and return on the afternoon bus, or simply walk back to Ponta Delgada. The island is small enough that if you're a keen hiker, you can do that. Bring food for the whole day, as there are not many shops in the rural parts of the island.

Although São Miguel keep tempting you to walk around everywhere, you'll be better off staying on the country roads. There are few fences to see, but that's just because the Azoreans have perfected the art of planting thorny bushes to separate between the different meadows that the lucky local cows graze upon. I used all the band-aids I brought, to put it that way.

Apart from that, it was a nice trip! See photos for further comments. #8D)

Back from the A.Z.O.R

I spent a week on São Miguel, the largest island of the Azores, a Portuguese (yet sort of autonomous) archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. Nice enough, but I would probably go back to Madeira a few times before I would choose to return to the Azores.


Anyway, it was nice enough. Except I really found use for all the clothes I had brought. All of them simultaneously, in fact. It's a fairly cold place. Which was good, as it meant that returning to Norway was a pleasant experience, climate-wise. #8D)

I found a decent place to stay in the old town in the island's "capital". Ponta Delgada a typical colonial town, with streets not built for car traffic, yet accommodating a lot of it. The sidewalks are on average just 25 centimetres wide/narrow, so walking around there is a Darwinian game of "Survival of the slimmest". You can leave your iPod at home, as you really need to hear any vehicle that may sneak up on you from behind, or it's game over for you.

If you're thinking of spending your honeymoon there, rethink! If that doesn't help, you'll be interested to know there's a hotel on the island catering especially for you. "Plus four square metres of bed to remember together for a life time!", they offer. It may not sound like much, but the island is so small that having more than four square metres to enjoy yourselves on is quite a treat!

If you plan on leaving your bed and the room, be aware of the need to bring warm clothing. Or you may end up like a guy on a bus I got on. He was almost kicked off the bus for repeatedly pressing the "STOP" button overhead, in a vain and desperate (unsuccessful) attempt at stopping the air conditioning that was harassing him.

My days were spent walking the island from end to end. There's a lot of greenery to see, some volcanic rocks, charming villages and ferocious dogs guarding every little herd of cows. And there are MANY cows on this island.

I'll get back to you with photos eventually.

Bjørn

Cote d'Azor

Right, so after a LOT of work with my photos, I'm just ready for a break without computers. The most backward part of Europe I could get a cheap ticket for on short notice turned out to be the Azores, a slightly unfortunately named archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean.

(This photo happens to be from Madeira, which is same same, but different.)

I'll just be hiking and taking more photos (*sigh*, more photo editing coming up) and getting rid of a couple of kilograms of fresh Easter chocolate attachments to my body.

Rumour has it that the rest of the island will be dominated by elderly people and flower lovers, so I'm pretty sure you shouldn't envy me too much. On the other hand, my only alternative was Mallorca, so I'm really looking forward to this, relatively speaking.

So, I'll probably report back in a week or so, telling you all how pleasantly surprised I was by what I found in the middle of the ocean.

Enjoy your spring!

B.

Around The Female Moustache

Hah! That's me getting back at all Australians for making fun of me when I didn't immediately understand that a noah is another word for "shark", because noah comes from Noah's Ark, which rhymes with shark. Anyway, "female moustache" is what you get if you translate "Hobart" to Norwegian. So there you have it.

Anyway, readers of this blog may recall that in December I went to Tasmania to see how many blisters I could cover my feet in just by hiking in the national parks there. It was a great success, and I have now put up a gallery with photos from my expedition.


What I found was square-shaped wombatshit, ice cubes on the beach (which turned out to be still potent fragments of stinging jellyfish crushed by the waves), wooden highways across the mountain plains, robots emptying the trash and a summery blizzard. Foreign parts is a strange place!

You can find the photos at the end of the rainbow, and here.

In related news, I'm fine and enjoying the Easter break in a fairly nice and warm Norway. There are just a thousand or so photos left to mess with (from New South Wales), after which I'll hopefully be free to move on with my life. For reasons I cannot fully explain, I have just 60 days of work left to do this year. This means I shall have to find a new project fairly soon.

It probably won't be a trip to Ibiza.

Many thanks to Tasmania for your cooperation!

Bjørn #8D)

Western Australia Greenery

So, I'm still working my way through the photos I took in Australia recently. Almost 97 percent of them fell through in quality control, but what remains can safely be presented to you. I think.

Anyway, while Western Australia north of Perth turned out to be red, the regions south of Perth are definitely dominated by green. If you like big trees and smooth rock, I think you'll find a walk through this gallery worth your while.

And now... Tasmania... *Sigh* (This may take a while.)

Bjørn #8D)

99 Western Australia Moments

Phew! I've gone through about a third of the photos I brought home from Australia recently. They cover the stretch between Perth and Broome, which is a trip on its own, therefore deserving a gallery on its own.


Unsurprisingly to those of you who follow my blog, these are mainly photos of wilderness and scenery. This part of my trip met all my expectations for a visit to the rugged parts of Australia. Red sand, strange animals and birds, mysterious tracks in the sand and lots of stuff only recently discovered by people.

You'll find the photos here.

Oh well. On to the rest of the photos from the southern part of Western Australia and some hikes in Tasmania... We'll see us again shortly! #8D)

Bjørn

Spent in Australia

(Or: Why Australia's tourism is doomed.)

I'm about to publish photos and text from my recent ten-week trip to Australia. Whenever I do something like that, it quickly triggers a steady flow of e-mails with questions about the trip. Many of the questions will be about how much the trip cost me.

Usually I have to say I don't really know. I never prepare a budget for my trips, I just pay my way from one place and/or activity to another as I go. This time, however, I sort of felt that I spent more than usual, so today I went through my bank transactions from my time in Australia.

Oh boy, did I spend! I'm not complaining, obviously, as the trip brought lots of those moments of happiness that make me travel. But in hindsight, I certainly could have done a lot of exciting things in other parts of the world for the amount of cash I left behind in Australia!


So, to assist those of you considering a trip to Australia, here are some boring, but hopefully useful pieces of information about how much a trip like mine will cost you.

Mind you, I'm pretty much self-activated when I travel. Wherever I am, I will find something to do. Usually that is to just walk around and observe. I didn't do any skydiving, bungee-jumping, cruises, guided tours or participate in any of the infinite and often over-priced activities on offer everywhere in Australia.

You want an example of what I'm talking about? Well, go to Sydney and see the Harbour Bridge, and you're likely to think "Hey! I would really like to enjoy the view from the top of that bridge!" And guess what? You can! Only thing is that you have to book ahead and be ready to spend three and a half hours on it, including a "safety demonstration" and donning of special clothes. And the cost? 189 Australian dollars! (About 120 US dollars). To walk some stairs! Unless you want to do it around sunset, of course. Then it's 249 AUD (160 USD). Or why not do the climb at dawn? Because it costs AUD295 (190 USD), that's why! Oh, and I forgot to mention that you're not even allowed to bring a camera. You ARE, however, allowed to pay a stiff price for a copy of photos that your "Climb Leader" will take during your walk.

The most amazing thing about the bridge climb is not the price they charge for it, or the view from the top of the bridge, but the fact that two million people have done the walk since they started in 1998! Not bad for a bridge that cost just ten million Australian dollars to build (in 1932).

Even if you stay away from the cities, opting for hiking in some of the great scenery Australia offers, you can easily spend a fortune. A guided hike through Tasmania's wilderness for 5-7 days will typically set you back AUD 2000-2500 (USD 1300-1600). Granted, you may be staying at cabins with wine cellars and jacuzzis and you will not have to carry much, but this is still an insane rate for spending a few days surrounded in scenery that was originally provided by Mother Earth at no cost.

Being from Norway, I appreciate the fact that to maintain an elevated standard of living in a country, relatively high prices on everything is a necessity. However, while travelers on low budgets are smart enough to avoid Norway, it seems that just about everyone and her brother on their trips around the world spend half their budget on doing surprisingly little for a few weeks in Downunder. (Yes, New Zealand, I'm talking about you too!) They could have done SO much better, value-for-money-wise, by heading elsewhere.

Anyway, here are my key numbers, in Australian dollars to minimize the effect of changes in exchange rates:

My total expenses, including everything: About AUD 10000.
Average cost per day (70 days), including airfare from Norway: AUD 140.
Average cost per day excluding airfare from Norway: AUD 101.

Airfare
Shoulder/high season tickets, Oslo, Norway - Perth and Sydney - Oslo: AUD 2800. Just getting there contributes about a quarter of all costs. It therefore makes sense to stay for a while.

Accommodation
Including a number of nights in a tent in the wilderness: AUD 1100. In smaller towns I paid AUD20-25 per night, in cities AUD30-35. There are cheaper hostels in the cities, but I prefer places with good safety and relative silence after 11pm, and they cost a little bit extra (often YHA hostels).

Food
I'm not sure how much of my expenses went towards food and drinks, but a fast food meal was about AUD 10 (pizza, burger, kebab, chicken). A modest restaurant meal was about twice that. Cooking properly with groceries at the hostel will be cheaper than AUD 10 only if you share your meal with others. In Western Australian small towns you will find that groceries are MUCH more expensive than in large towns and the east coast. Shop ahead in chain stores if you can (there's usually a Coles, Woolworths or IGA around). To me, chocolate is an essential necessity. It's fairly expensive in Australia, but the chains regularly have good offers on some brand of chocolate, bringing a large bar (200-250 grams) down to AUD 3-4.

Transportation
Getting around is a major expense in rural Australia. The distances are vast and the competition is low. You can often fly relatively cheaply, but then you miss out on the scenery between your stops.

Greyhound is a good bus company, but their schedule is not good for traveling to smaller places. I went with a slightly more expensive option, Easyrider Tours, you can jump off and on the bus again when you like, and they make stops at interesting places on a schedule that means only traveling and arriving to places during daytime. (And we only broke down in the middle of nowhere once!) The ticket for seven days of travel from Perth and north towards Broome was AUD 750, and the ticket for a three day loop south of Perth via Albany was AUD 320.

My flights: Broome - Perth at AUD 165. Perth - Melbourne at AUD 120. Hobart - Melbourne at AUD 150.

I took the ferry from Melbourne to Tasmania, and I got a last minute special offer day ticket at AUD 45. The normal one-way rate was AUD 128, high-season AUD 179.

I used the train from Sydney to the Blue Mountains, a good deal at about AUD20. I also used the train from there to Port Macquarie and back, costing about AUD 70 each way. I also took a night bus from Melbourne to Sydney at AUD 75, with Firefly. Greyhound offer roughly the same service at the same price.

While traveling, I got the idea I wanted to do the Overland Track hike in Tasmania. I had to get a trekking permit at AUD 150 allowing me to spend as long on the walk as I wanted, as long as I started hiking on a specific day. To be allowed onto the track I had to be "properly equipped". Even though it was in the middle of summer, that meant I needed a decent tent and some warm wind- and rainproof clothing. I bought cheap, but good stuff at a chain store, All Goods, at AUD 275.

There you have it. Now, think twice before you head for Australia. It's a beautiful place, but so is most of the rest of the world, many parts of which can be had at significantly lower rates...

Happy trails!

Back in the hiber-nation

I'm back, and I'm alive, as promised! Some of you have worried about the silence in this blog. Since it's common knowledge that most visitors to Australia end up in hospital or as some kind of animal fodder, I clearly should have announced my safe return before now. I'm sorry!

Incidentally, I DID end up in a hospital. Fortunately I was just visiting, and the reason I visited was that it was a koala hospital, where I was hoping to cheer up the poor, fluffy critters. Which I did, possibly. It's hard to tell whether a sleepy koala is satisfied or not. Anyway, I know for sure that one of them did not enjoy my visit too much, as I for all practical purposes pretty much killed it.

Before I went to the koala hospital, I took a walk in the forest nearby, in Port Macquarie, well north of Sydney. I had come there just to see koalas, and I wanted to see them in the wild. I found one, and I photographed it with much enthusiasm. Later on, I went to the koala hospital in town, and since I was quite proud to have found a wild koala (well, that's an oxymoron, obviously, but you know what I mean, one that lives in the forest on its own), I showed the photos I had taken of it to a koala doctor.

She had a good look at the photos, and then she declared that this was one sick koala I had found! I had thought that a runny bottom just might be a feature of koalas, not a bug, but apparently it is caused by koalic syphilis! I don't know where they find the energy to do anything that might cause sexually transmitted diseases to actually move from koala to koala, but they seem to do it somehow.

So what happened was that the animal was collected from its tree, and, per my directions, brought back to the hospital so that it couldn't infect any other sexy koalas. It was so sick that they were unable to cure it, so they would simply have to end its life. I'm sure they gave it a nice meal, and maybe a cigar, before they cuddled it to death. Still, I feel kinda bad for it. If not for me, it would have continued its forestial fornication, and I'm sure it would have enjoyed that very much. My only comfort is that what happened was certainly for the greater good.

That was just about the last thing I did in Australia. Before that I spent some days hiking in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, after some good, but cool days in and near Hobart, Tasmania. On my last day there I hiked up Mount Wellington, 1200 metres of impressive mountain with a view of the city.

It was right in the middle of the summer, but the weather was reluctant to accept the fact. It got colder as I ascended the mountain, and with about 200 vertical metres to go, it started snowing. I kept on walking, and the snow kept on getting more intense. As I arrived at the top, it was pretty much a blizzard going on around me.

I don't mind a bit of snow. What was much worse was the fact that when I finally came up there, I discovered that there is actually a road leading up there, and there were several cars parked next to a roofed viewing platform. From which there was absolutely nothing to see, apart from the usual white wall of a blizzard.

To cheer myself up while I waited for the weather to clear, I decided to build a snowman. Now, even with this being Tasmania, rough and cold weather like that is unusual. So a team from the local TV station came up there to report on the weird phenomenon of midsummer snow. And what could possibly be more intriguing than a story about a good-looking backpacker from the other side of the world building a snowman on the top of their mountain? Well, I'll tell you: A story about a local, cute little girl with blonde hair and wearing a pink dress building a snowman on the top of their mountain. She saw what I was doing, and copied the idea! She stole my thunder, or my blizzard, as it were!

Such is life, I guess.

Anyway, I had a good time the last couple of weeks in Australia, and eventually I will be able to prove it through my photos. When I copied them onto my computer at home, I learnt that there are 4443 photos I need to choose a few from to show you. I'll be working on that for a while...

As an appetizer, please have a look at the photos from my stop in Singapore on my way to Australia.

Bjørn, non-syphilitic

Catching up

I've been unable to keep the blog going, but yes, I am still traveling. Since leaving you suspended in Walpole I've moved on through Albany, Perth and Melbourne to Tasmania. Here I've hiked quite a bit to while away Christmas, and I just witnessed New Year's Eve in Hobart, which by the way translates to "female moustache" in Norwegian. I'm not entirely sure it's a fair description of the city, but at least the hostel I'm staying at (The Pickled Frog) is fairly hairy.

From here I'll soon be moving back to the mainland and Sydney. For now I'm not quite sure what I should blog about. A lot of things are happening, and the imp inside my camera is working hard on documenting it all. I'll just briefly give you some vital information, not necessarily facts:

* Near Albany I witnessed giant waves hitting the cliffs on the Flinders Peninsula. These waves push all of Australia northwards at a pace of 5 centimeters per year. This means that in 80 million years, Australia will be back where it is now, having traveled around the world!

* Unlike ravens in the rest of the world, Australian ravens like to inhale helium from balloons, which makes them sound like Smurf-Ravens. It's a lot of fun listening to them whining.

* There's a brand of beer here called XXXX, because no one knew how to spell "beer" when they were to market their new brew.

* Hostels in the countryside are often empty, so I've spent a few nights having dorms all to myself. Hostels in the cities are full of Asians who spend the nights fornicating in the bathrooms. This is much unlike the situation ten years ago, when all Asians were traveling on their own and being very intellectual about it.

* The Overland Track, a hiking trip that comes to about 100 kilometers of walking if you include all sidetrips you should do, is limited to allowing only 60 or so walkers onto it per day. This is because the hike is very popular because it's got a cool name AND all the strenuous parts of it are outfitted with boardwalks. I'm pretty sure that if they had called it "The Aboriginal Track" instead, hardly any Australians at all would have walked it, and they would not have had to limit the number of walkers. It seems that anything that has something to do with Aboriginals is largely ignored by most of the people in Godzone.

* On the cold beaches of the southern part of Western Australia there is often a larger contingent of rescue team members than there is of swimmers and sunbathers. And they're not even being paid to be there, as they are volunteers. They don't have to do much, since the water is so cold that I'm surprised there weren't more penguins around.

* Tasmania is STILL full of criminals, it seems. Wherever I go, stuff I put in the communal fridge seems to disappear into thin air. Oh well, mustn't grumble...

* Hiking in Freycinet includes a lot of climbing of rocks. The park receives 300 000 visitors annually, of which many are NOT experienced hikers, but they hike anyway. Because of this, I am happy to report that underwear seems to be rarely used in this country. I've seen an awful lot of people in awkward positions negotiating steep hills in ways that shows off large areas of buttcrack. There's hardly any sign of anyone wearing undies at all!

* I'm still alive.

And I'll be back. I promise.

Oh, and Happy New Year, everyone!

Australia Number 1!

The Downunders are competitive people. Now they have managed to become the number one polluting nation in the world (as in both hemispheres) per capita! Thanks to long distances that needs to be covered to move people and goods around, many a large town that is run not on power plants but on diesel aggregates, numerous heavily polluting mines and lots and lots of farting sheep, they're really running the planet down!

It seems they intend to keep this position. There's not much more they can do to become worse, but they sure try hard. Between Perth and the rest of the country there's both a road and a railroad. On the road there is no scheduled bus service. If you want to go by road, you'll have to buy a car and drive it across the Nullarbor plains. If you want to go by train, which presumably would hurt the environmental badness of Australia, you'll have to book your ticket well in advance. There's only ONE weekly train between Perth and Adelaide/Sydney, and on that train there are only about 124 sleeper seats!

The result? There are LOTS of flights, both cheap and expensive ones, to and from Perth, and people get on them. It seems that will have to be my option as well, although I really wanted to cross the Nullarbor by land. I've already seen the second longest straight stretch of land, near Coral Bay, so I don't think I'm missing out on much, but still...

What's more, Australia has managed the impressive feat of becoming the most obesive nation in the world! The US is really losing all their hegemonies these days. Food is not even particularly cheap here, they still eat and eat and eat, and leave most of the exercise to be done in Australia to their Olympic swimming team. Sustain-a-belly dwell-up-ment, they call it, I believe.

To make sure that nobody performs any slimming activities, the Australians have introduced tight limits on how many people are allowed to go on the most beautiful walks available in the country. On The Overland Track in Tasmania, for instance, only about 60 people are allowed onto the track per day. And a large portion of those who walk it are actually foreigners. Like me! I'll be going on December 24, yay! I still have to make my way to Tasmania in time for it, but that shouldn't be too difficult.

Right now I'm warming up for the Overland Track by walking sections on the Bibbulmun Track in the south of Western Australia. It's also a beautiful walk, with amazing, tall Karri trees. In a couple of months I'll show you the photos.