Wicked Onslow

This is Part III of my Australian Road Trip. If you want to read Parts I and II, click on the button "Vorige" below this message.

Spending four days and nights with the Farrell brothers was perhaps the most memorable part of our time in Australia. Collin and Dean are real outback guys. Grew up in the outback, lived their entire life in the outback and will die in the outback. Dean actually tried Sydney but after two weeks on the welding job in the big city, he told his boss he was thoroughly unhappy and went back to the outback. Dean & Collin live together with a housemate (a 50 year old alcoholic, anorexic, toothless, junkie who looks about 75 years old) and four dogs in a house near the sea. You know those programs on TV where the municipality sends out a team armed with gloves, masks and chemical products to clean houses of people that totally cannot take care of themselves and are drowning in their own rubbish? This house in Onslow would qualify... and the brothers would make excellent characters for TV. The first beer is downed five minutes after waking up and they drink steadily until they go to bed. I’ve never actually seen them drinking anything else but beer. And I couldn’t find a single toothbrush in the bathroom either. Lots of dead flies, cockroaches, live frogs and spiders though. During those four days, I managed to muster up the courage to take a shower in that bathroom twice.

We parked Stinky Bum in the garden, next to four car wrecks, two boats, uncountable bins, fishing equipment scattered all over the place, several fridges, spare car parts, ropes, chains, tools, empty boxes, dirty eskies and God know what else. But it was all part of an unforgettable experience.

Dean and Collin took us out fishing in beautiful places where we would never have gone. We caught an amazing amount of fish and ate them all. Dean showed me how to shuck oysters straight of the rocks and eat them as fresh as they come. Collin showed Stefano how to skin a kangaroo tail and then made a stew that anybody’s grandmother would be jealous of. We set out traps to catch mud crabs and after they cooked the catch for us, they set a makeshift table in their yard, in the middle of all the rubbish and there we were, having a romantic crab dinner under the stars, with Collin explaining to us in great detail how to cook, dissect and eat crabs properly. In the evening, we spent hours drinking beers and talking about how much they love their country and it’s nature. When I was devoured by sand flies, Collin cut off a fresh leaf of aloe vera from the garden and told me to rub it on my skin. I told him my mom would be very pleased to see that. Several friends of theirs would come by in the evening, drinking so much alcohol that just thinking about it makes me sick, yet driving home in their pick up in the dark. One of the dogs caught a King Brown, one of the deadliest snakes in the world, in the back yard (five meters away from our camper van).

I was somewhat relieved when we said our goodbyes and checked into a camping with a clean shower that evening. But when we parted and we said we had the greatest time thanks to them, I meant it with all my heart. Despite the hygiene factor, I grew terribly fond of these two guys and I have great respect for the way they make do with what they have. One of those on Expedition Robinson and you’re sure to survive, easily.

With about 2.200 km left to Perth, the end of our trip was in sight. We stopped at two other locations on the way South and the last evening, as we were fishing on a jetty, we met three Dutch guys, trying to catch dinner too. One glance was enough to see that a) they were Dutch, b) they had definitely been to University and been member of some elite student fraternity and c) they had never fished before. So Stefano explained a few things to them, gave them all the fishing equipment we weren’t going to take back to Egypt and I showed them how to kill a fish by sticking a knife into the head. My banking days seemed centuries away.

The morning of the next day in Perth we cleaned Stinky Bum and said goodbye to what had been our home for 28 days and 12.000 km. With a few hours to spare before our flight departure, we went to visit Nicole’s parents in City Beach. Being back in the civilised world felt good, I must admit.

And so our return trip to Egypt began. Perth - Singapore (five meals in one day, catch up with Timmo and Sim Lim for PS3 games for Ivan & Darja), Singapore - Phuket - Khao Lak (to pick up our left luggage and diving gear, eat crabs and say hi to a couple of friends), Phuket - Bangkok (12 hours in Kao San Road, sweating three liters an hour, massage, pedicure, street food), Bangkok - Cairo (with 58 kilo’s between the two of us), five hours waiting at the bus station in the middle of Egypt’s polluted capital city, six hours by bus to Gouna, and we were home.

Home sweet home.

Having survived 28 days in a camper van with Stefano, I decided that living together in a house should not pose too many obstacles. So I moved in with him. Actually, we live in his parent’s house. Vanda & Lino spend winter & spring here, so for the past ten days, I’ve been living with my “family-in-law”, eating home cooked Italian food. It’s the first time that I actually move into somebody else’s house but little independent me is slowly getting used to it.

Work has not really picked up yet, since the number of tourists has been relatively low until now. While I've been spending half of my saved capital, the rest of the world seems to be in a deep economic crisis. So I’ve worked only a bit as a free lance guide for TGI, bumming around the rest of the days at the Clubhouse, on the beach, taking care of some paper work, sorting my holiday pictures and meeting up with my Gouna friends.

Tomorrow we leave for Aswan, Abu Simbel and Lake Nasser, in the South of Egypt, where Darja & Ivan will be working on a film/photo project and Stefano and I will be fishing Nile Perch. Six days on a boat in a huge lake in the middle of the desert. Does that sound like a holiday to you? It does to me... :-)

And after that, the holidays are really over. When we come back, Stefano and I will have the house to ourselves. Beginning of June, I start the Diving Instructor’s Course, hoping to be an Instructor by mid-June. And that’s as far as my planning for the future goes.

Looking back, I can’t believe the adventures I’ve had. The world is a wonderful place to discover, but for me, it’s mainly the people and especially my travel companions and friends that have made the beginning of 2009 possibly the best time of my life.

You know who you are, thank you.

Wishing you all lots of travel bugs,

So long,

Yaisa