Going Green...no, not from scurvy

In my ongoing effort to slash costs while still getting
good value for my traveling dollar (that sounds way too
much like politician speak), I decided to pack up my bike
and pedal my way down from Sydney to Melbourne. This would
prove to be a formidable jaunt of roughly 1250 km. After
the fact, I thought that if I was really clever, I would
have created some kind of pseudo-charity or "pedal for the
planet" type benefit, that could have earned me money for
my eco-friendly traveling. But I'm not really clever. As
it was, I think my pasta and coffee costs alone would
probably have bought me enough fuel to drive down. It was
an awesome way to travel though. I saw tons of cool crap
and met some good blokes. Here's some pics.

Contrary to my expectations, it does rain in Oz.

...but it dries out quick.

As you'd expect in the southern hemisphere
the christmas trees grow upside down.


On one side of town they're holding bakesales
for a new linear accelerator...


...and on the other they're selling Emu oil.
What century is this again?

The trip involved a bit of off-roading...


...and some places you really wouldn't want
to blow a tire.


Some edible wildlife.

Thats all for now. More soon.

Australia on a budget

After returning to Sydney following 3 months on the hedonistic east coast, it was time to bring my living expenses down to 3rd world levels and milk a few more weeks out of my travel budget. In doing so, I came across some pretty good ways to save money in what can be a very expensive country. I also found some not-so-effective ways of saving coin. Here's all I know about living on the cheap in Australia.

Good Ideas:

1. Make friends with the goon (aka: the animal). This is of course boxed wine. At a street price of around $10 for 4 litres, its the single best way to save money is Oz (putting aside the unspeakable horror of sobriety). The empty foil bag also makes a dandy pillow for those overnight bus rides (see tip #4).
2. 30 cent ice cream cones at McDonalds. This is unreal. In Sydney, where you'd be hard pressed to find a coffee or a slice of pizza for less than 4 bucks, you can pick up a delicious soft serve treat for a bit of couch change. Its surely the best dining value in the city.
3. Tenting. If you don't mind sleeping in the bush, then you're pretty much set. Free accommodation wherever you are. Tenting in city parks and like areas, is apparently illegal and not recommended...unless you can find some good bush cover. Stealth tenting can be a very useful skill to acquire though, should you ever need to camp in a city.
4. Overnight buses. This is a pretty standard one, and a no-brainer really. You're paying for the bus anyways (unless you're riding your bike, but thats advanced material that we'll leave alone for now ;), so why not get a free nights accommodation out of it too? With the 1,2 punch of finishing a bag of goon and the resulting pillow (tip #1), you'll think you've just checked in at the Hilton!

Bad Ideas:

1. Free radio!...when you buy four $9 vodka-guarana drinks at the bar. Unfortunately, it turns out that alcohol impairs judgment. What seemed like a better deal than the Louisiana purchase at the time turned out to be more of a Betamax purchase in the morning.
2. Saving on train tickets by...not buying train tickets. I tried this one in a moment of near mental shutdown. At some train stations you don't need to go through a turnstile to get onto the train. Brilliantly, I figured I'd outsmarted the system and waltzed on "au gratuis"! Well, someone had obviously thought things through one step farther than me and had installed exit turnstiles at all the major stops in the city. Luckily, I had my running shoes on, so I hopped the gate and pulled a runner! I didn't have to go far to evade the lazy transit cops, but it was nonetheless slightly too much effort (for a $4.50 savings) to make my "good idea" list.

Lord of the Flies

Ok, as promised, here is the video of the unfortunate horse-fly that landed on my leg and was subsequently flicked into the spider web... of death! I wouldn't normally be so cavalier about taking a creature's life, but this little bastard deserved it and hell, it was damn entertaining! So sit back and relax as you watch this masacre unfold!

As I'm writing, I'm back in Sydney, waiting to get on
a standby flight home. So with a bit of time on my hands,
this will hopefully be the first in a flurry of blog posts
as I try desperately to make up for my neglectful posting
over the last few months.