I loved wandering through Darling Harbour or taking the ferry to Manly Beach in Sydney, exploring the great cafés and night spots in Melbourne, and hitting some of the fantastic museums in Canberra.

In the Northern Territory, I got a taste of what I’ve always imagined to be ‘real’ Australia (not that the cities are any less real) in the Outback. I walked around Ayers Rock and ran under its waterfalls after the rain, trekked through the Valley of the Winds in Kata Tjuta, and hiked around the rim of Kings Canyon. I drove past herds of wild camels, slowly backed away from a Western Brown Snake (one of the deadliest in the world), and evicted various lethal spiders that had found their way indoors.

On the coast, I got to see some music legends at the Byron Bay Bluesfest before heading up to the Whitsundays for a spot of sailing among these beautiful islands. I walked across pure white sand on Whitehaven Beach, and went snorkeling around the most amazing reef I’ve ever seen. The Great Barrier Reef isn’t world famous for nothing after all.

And finally I got to explore the famous Fraser Island – the largest sand island in the world, with its stunning freshwater lakes and abundant dingo population.

My list of Australian memories could go on, but the list of things I still want to see is even longer. It is almost impossible to really convey how fantastically huge and diverse this country is. I’m glad I got to see what I did, and I can’t wait for my chance to see more. The plane ride has never been more worthwhile.

Later on in the day, Kat, Danny and I went to meet Tribali which was great. We also met Nick Kickstand who gave me his CD after he jammed out on his bongos with the band.

After the energy of Tribali, we couldn’t help ourselves, so we headed back to the Narasito Pan Pipers yet again and jumped around to the pan-piping/blues singing bunch.

At night, we camped ourselves at main stage, seeing Blue King Brown, Fat Freddys Drop and Crowded House to round off the night. Blue King Brown sang their heart out – they were a band to make Bob Marley proud. A soul, a purpose, a message, and definitely some music you could sway and nod your head to. You know the kind.

After them it was Fat Freddys Drop. I hadn’t heard of them before, I have to admit, but Kat had assured me I’d love them. She was right. The highlight was probably the trombonist who came out looking FINE in an all white suit and an energy he seemed to have a lot of trouble controlling. In fact, he had a lot of trouble controlling the suit too… he ended up in a vest top and boxer shorts by the end, but to say he enjoyed himself would be an understatement. His enthusiasm definitely rubbed off. I’ll thank Kat for that one.

Finally was Crowded House. Ahh my last act. Another one I wasn’t too familiar with – they’re homegrown Australian. Although I did recognise “Four Seasons in One Day” and “Fall At Your Feet.”  My old boss from Longitude, Tapa, had recommended them so I thought I had to check them out. They were a great band, definitely of a different generation I have to admit, but I was just enjoying the time with my friends at my last day here before heading off for more East Coast fun. And I enjoyed it just as I wanted to.

So that was it, the Byron Bay Bluesfest was over for me. An epic four days in one of my favourite Australian towns. Even if I didn’t spend much time IN the town…small detail.

I was pretty excited about my interview – Bela Fleck is arguably one of the best banjo players in the world, and had recently done a tour around various parts of Africa, studying the banjos origins and playing with local orchestras and village kids as he traveled. I saw Bela Fleck live back in Maryland when I was about 15, so I was really excited about the prospect of getting to meet him in person. I know he isn’t the most high profile musician of the week – but any interview was great for me, and this was a blast back to my high school days, plus I couldn’t wait to talk about his travels in Africa.

I was duly escorted backstage and shown to a table to wait patiently for the man to arrive. Delay after delay after delay later, it started to become pretty clear that it wasn’t happening. Mr. Fleck was running late and ran out of time before he had to get on stage. It was disappointing to have been missing so much good music in the meantime, but the silver lining was Poor Man’s Whiskey did a little improv jam session backstage after one of their interviews. So at least I got to see a little music, and hey, can’t complain about a more or less private backstage show, right?

After that, I finally made my way back into the festivals and located my friends again. I had time to briefly check out a bit of Bela’s set before we headed to the Mojo Stage to stake out our spots for the night. First one was the Buena Vista Social Club – a great latin orchestra that makes you wish you knew how to salsa. The problem I had with them was, that while they are GREAT musicians, and their music is top quality, it isn’t the type of music I particularly enjoy listening to for a full hour. They sing in Spanish, eliminating any chance of singing along, and maybe it’s my ignorance, but I simply cannot enjoy that chilled Latin beat for more than a few songs before I want something a little different.

Obviously this is a personal taste – and there were plenty of people in the crowd that would have vehemently disagreed with me. Unfortunately for us, everyone in front of us was there for the same reasons we were – to get as close as possible to the stage before the headliner. Jack Johnson. Yes, I know, I know, I’ve already seen him play once this week, but how can you say no to seeing him twice?? He was just as great the second time around too.

The sunrises and sunsets are almost always stunning. My camera’s memory is full of photo upon photo of the sun coming up and going down, but it still doesn’t get old. When the horizon seems to go on forever and your line of sight includes Australia’s most amazing natural wonders, it’s easy to see why. Even in between the morning and evening this place is hard to take for granted (even though I probably do, especially when I’m up at 4:30am for an early work shift and wishing I could be doing anything else…until the sun rises of course and I remember why I love this place).

During the day, if it’s sunny, the sky is a blue that you just don’t get in the big cities. Even on a rainy day, the Rock is covered in silver waterfalls barreling down every crevice. And at night: I have never seen so many stars. Apparently when you’re not surrounded by pollution you can actually see the Milky Way, plus whole other galaxies that look like clouds in the sky. For our guests at Longy, our guides do a ‘star talk’ and show them the Southern Hemisphere’s constellations, so thanks to them I know where the Southern Cross is and have seen all the zodiac signs that are currently in the sky – things I had never seen before.

Then there’s the wildlife. First there are the flies. Step outside and it’s like your face is covered in honey. They seem to fly straight for my eyes, nose, ears and mouth. I try not to think about how many I’ve swallowed. The extra protein in my diet isn’t worth the unpleasant feeling of an insect hitting the back of my throat. Trust me. Even the ants around here aren’t normal – here you get Inch Ants. No prizes for guessing why they got their name. On top of that are the endless grasshoppers, giant centipedes, and the oh-so-aromatic Stink Bug. There are plenty of things out here that eat all the little critters, but I’m not sure that’s any better since half of them can take down a human any day they feel like it too. Why a bug that only needs to kill tiny flies and ants has enough venom to take down any man is beyond me. Maybe the most literal sense of overkill ever…

First there are the snakes. So far I’ve come across a Western Brown Snake (NOT a snake you want to annoy) and what was apparently a Whip Snake jumping across my path. And I thought snakes only slithered…  The emergency call list in the office includes the numbers for the local fire department, medic centre, police, and snake catcher.

Then my favourite: spiders. It is amazing how much I have been forced to quell my usually uncontrollable arachnophobia. When a six inch long Hunstman suddenly crawls onto a table at dinner in the restaurant, I have to act like the cool, calm employee that has everything under control. Inside I’m screaming, but never have I exhibited such restraint around an eight-legged thing. Lately there’s been an outbreak of Golden Orb spiders – apparently harmless but I’d still rather keep my distance, and this past week whilst walking into a bathroom I looked up to see four Redbacks, one of which was getting ready to lay her eggs. The larger female Redback spiders are barely one centimeter long, but one bite would definitely ruin your day. I just found out that these little things can take down lizards 20 times their size, and the females eat the males WHILE they’re mating. Not a creature you want to annoy…

Some of the wildlife here is a lot more entertaining. Like the Blue Tongue Lizards, the really cute little Thorny Devils, the occasional dingo or herd of wild camels and the ever-colourful birds.

The pigeons and squirrels in London are never going to hold quite the same charm…

** Unfortunately I’m having trouble uploading photos onto WordPress at the moment, so please check out the links below for all my photos including the wildlife!

Ayers Rock

Ayers Rock 2

Kings Canyon – blog post coming soon

Well…

That was me. I was the idiot sprinting down the hall in Sydney airport, running to the front of the First Class check-in desks to beg the woman to let me get on the flight, getting stuck at security TWICE because I forgot to take out the nail scissors and bottle opener from my hand luggage, desperately searching the screens for my gate number which has already been taken off the screen because I’m so late, red-faced and panting as I get to the gate just before the staff members close the doors and getting all the haughty looks that I give out myself so often to that last guy who gets on the plane and can’t find a place for his bag overhead because it’s all full already. Yikes.

But I clearly did make the plane (just), and was on my way from Sydney to Ayers Rock. For whatever reason, I didn’t really pay attention at all to how long my flight was about to be, but when I realised that I would be getting a meal AND watching a film, it started to sink in how far I was really flying. And I wasn’t even going across the country; I was just getting to the middle.

I had a window seat and there were no clouds at all, so in between watching the film (The Invention of Lying, by the way, not a bad movie) I kept an eye on what we were flying over. Which was…nothing. Miles and miles and miles of red sand, bush, dry riverbanks, and nothing else. For the ENTIRE flight. I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s Down Under and in that book Bryson points out that “Australia is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all inhabited continents. (Only Antartica is more hostile to life.)” So that’s what I saw. Dry, flat, red land.

After a few hours, it was there. Ayers Rock (or more traditionally, Uluru) was passing by my window, and what seemed like a stone’s throw away (it’s actually 20 kilometres) was a tiny line of little white tents – Longitude 131, my new place of work. I first heard about “Longy” when I wrote the article linked earlier during my time at Black Tomato. It was quite another thing to really see this place from the sky.

I was met at the airport by Kristy, my restaurant supervisor, who drove me around Yulara (the resort-town) to help me get a grasp of where everything was. Yulara has less than 2,000 residents and almost nobody here is actually from the Northern Territory. The ‘town’ is essentially one ring road with one of everything you need. One Post Office, one petrol station, one bank, one small library, one supermarket and so on. The ground is nothing but bright red dirt that now colours most of my clothes, and the bushes that cover the land seem to thrive despite all the odds. In fact, a lot of the bushes around here are completely blackened from previous fires and yet they are green with new leaves. In the middle of the ring road is a hill that gives you a good 360 degree view of the place and the hundreds of miles of nothingness that is behind every building. You can also see Kata Tjuta and Uluru (usually just called ‘the Rock’ around here) which are everyday sights since they’re both only a few kilometres away. After all, the only reason this town even exists is because of these huge monoliths.

I have never been quite so literally in the middle of nowhere.

Wake up early (between eight and nine, or later if your Aussie is more relaxed…), have a cup of coffee.

Collect your thoughts and throw on some ‘swimmers’ (or bathing suit, swimsuit, bikini, or your own preferred term).

Walk down your back garden to the beach either empty handed, or with a kayak, body board or surf board. At this point you’re fully expected to jump right into the ocean. Australia is famous for surfing for a reason – I haven’t seen many (or any?) beaches in Australia yet that didn’t have waves that tower over my head. Also – Oz is surrounded by very large oceans and isn’t all that far away from a very large and icy continent, so the water? Freezing. On Sunday I was told ‘the water was great’ just before my entire body turned numb during my ten minute dip. So, I suppose all I’m saying is, be sure you’re comfortable with you ability to hold your breath as you kick for the surface before you get further than knee deep. You get used to diving into the icy water as quickly as possible, otherwise you look like a scaredy-cat and nobody wants that.

Walk back from the beach, take an outdoor shower, dress and turn on the barbeque. Bacon, eggs, toast, whatever takes your fancy.

Eat.

Sit around relaxing, preferably with a cold beer in hand.

In a few hours, turn the barbeque back on. Homemade burgers, sausages, some amazing grilled veggies, again the ingredients can be flexible.

Drink cold beer and cheap wine late into the night, perhaps walk back to the beach for a bonfire.

Sleep.

Repeat.

Phew, I think I need to lie down.

15 DEC 09 @ 08:50PM BY ALEX WARD

Marianne Mcphee - Now living in Lane Cove

MARIANNE McPhee camped for two days outside a London travel agency to win the chance to become a 10-pound Pom.

The agency offered 150 British travellers with working holiday visas the 10 tickets to Australia as part of its 30th birthday celebrations.

Ms Mcphee, 23, now living in Lane Cove, determinedly queued outside the STA office near London’s Victoria Station to get one of the highly sought-after Qantas tickets.

“Camping on the streets of London was an experience” said Ms McPhee of sleeping in a tent.

“I still can’t really believe it has happened. I just bought a flight to Australia for 10!”

The term 10-pound Pom was given to British immigrants who travelled to Australia between the 1940s and ‘70s under an assisted-passage scheme. More than one million people journeyed to Australia this way.

An avid traveller, Ms McPhee plans to work in Sydney over the summer before exploring and working in other parts of the country.

Tourism Australia UK and Europe general manager Rodney Harrex said the promotion was to raise awareness of the working holiday visa among young Brits at a time when increasing numbers were looking to travel Down Under.  – By Alex Ward

Last week I hit Bondi Beach with a few friends to spend some time on Sydney’s most famous strip of sand. It’s not huge, especially after you see Manly, but it’s big enough and it’s PACKED mostly with the likes of us, i.e. backpackers, and surfing aficionados, i.e. not us… The surf is KILLER. There’s probably some cool surfer dude term for that, but I wouldn’t know…ahhh one day. I did attempt swimming for about three minutes. I went out until the water hit my thighs (so you know, ten feet from shore) before the waves were already creeping up and over my head, sucking me under. I’m a strong enough swimmer to handle that, but my bikini is not, and after a couple of minutes I decided that was enough indecent exposure and headed back to shore. Not to self: buy more secure bathing suits…

Craig did rent a surf board and gave it a go, but I think after a handful of near death experiences the board was kindly returned to its shop. I think we all need lessons…

I’ll most likely be headed back to Bondi Beach on Christmas day so you’ll hear more about it soon.

Coogee Beach was a brief visit for a free barbeque with Oz Party Bus! I took a walk around the beach talking about the greatness of the Oz Party Christmas Eve Cruise and their bi-weekly party bus that rides around a few of Sydney’s bars each Thursday and Saturday. I found a lot of Aussies on Coogee. Okay, sounds crazy – Australians on an Australian beach?! What?! But honestly, after Bondi Backpacker Heaven, it was actually strange coming across so many locals.

Beach number three: Manly. My favourite beach. Maybe because it’s on the north side of Sydney (the side I also live on) or maybe because it really is the nicest. It’s a little confusing because there are rather small unimpressive beaches next to Manly Wharf but walk through town and you find a large, soft sand beach. Bigger than Coogee and Bondi and in a nicer part of town. The waves here are much more manageable, the atmosphere is more catered towards families, and you don’t trip over beer bottles and cigarette butts on your way to the water’s edge. Not that Bondi or Manly are unpleasant – I promise they’re still fun. In fact, Bondi is the best beach for accessibility the the centre of Sydney, and for social events as it is where you’ll find most of the working holidayers around here. But for chilled out afternoon lying on the sand. Manly is the way to go.

My next stop is Melbourne for a few days!

Update: I am working! At the moment I have some promotions work which means I get to walk the streets, let myself into random office buildings, and walk around the shops all day, and on top of it all they send me on business trips to Melbourne! Not bad. I’ll be spending a lot of the time working, but I’ll do what I can to explore the city and report back.

Until then, Happy Holidays!

I was asked to reminisce about all the ways I’ve used them over the years.

I first used the STA offices in 2007 when I took a backpacking trip around Europe. I went to their offices where I bought my Euro Rail pass and my Euro Tunnel tickets along with my travel insurance. I got a pretty good deal, plus having the Rail pass was a huge weight off my shoulders – it was nice to be able to travel around without having to continually hand over cash every few days. On top of all that, I was able to talk to someone about what was actually a realistic trip for me – where I could go, how long would I need, how would I get there. Just like any traveling trip, nothing went exactly as planned, but it calmed a lot of my worries being able to talk to someone who actually knew what they were talking about!

After that I used them again when my three good friends and I took a trip to Barcelona, Marrakech and Madrid. They figured out the cheapest route for us (turned out it was actually cheaper to go to Madrid, then down to Marrakech and back into Spain to hit Barcelona) which helped us out a ton.

After that I finished off university and headed to Asia on my own wind (sorry STA…) but it wouldn’t be long before I came crawling back! If you’re an avid reader of this blog, you’ll know already that I am one of the very lucky £10 Poms now enjoying the sunshine in Australia. When I got that ticket, I found out about STA Travel Buzz and the wonderful Cam who set me up as one of her STA Explorers. Before I headed to Australia I managed to sort out an Australian bank account and tax number, again, all through STA. What legends.

They’ve got a lot of great staff there and they’re out to help the young and restless on their travels…where ever that may be!

On August 3rd, almost four months ago, I got in a queue outside STA’s London Victoria office where I stayed until two days later, Wednesday, August 5th to become one of 150 people to be named the new ‘£10 Poms.’ And here I am. Writing to you from a home in Lane Cove, Sydney, where I’ve been settling in for the past five days and getting ready to start this new chapter of my traveling.

So last Tuesday, I boarded my Qantas flight and made myself as comfortable as I could. Unforunately, £10 only got me Economy Class (shocking really…), and I also somehow managed to land a seat in the very last row of the plane. Not ideal, but I made it work. Several movies and a short nap later we were in Bangkok where we were ordered off the plane to walk through the airport, go through security again, and re-board at a new gate minus some original passengers and plus a few new people making the trip from Thailand down to Sydney. Several more movies and another nap later and I woke up to my first Australian sunrise. I don’t think any of this was real until then.

Before I knew it, I was on the ground, backpack in tow, being driven to Lane Cove by the lovely Nad, Johanna and baby Kamran who, along with Nad’s brother Sal and India, the golden lab, were kind enough to host me during my previous stay in Sydney back in May (well, Kamran wasn’t around back then…).

In the last few days I’ve spent a lot of time around the house trying to adjust (the jet lag is killer, my days tend to start around 4:30 in the morning…) and organising my plan of attack which right now just entails finding a job as soon as possible.

Last Saturday I was cordially invited to an American Thanksgiving meal by a few old friends from BU who now call Sydney home. About thirty of us drank, ate and made ourselves thankful by the beach in Double Bay. Not your typical American Thanksgiving scene, but I wasn’t complaining about eating turkey and pumpkin pie with Sydney Harbour as a backdrop. It could definitely be a lot worse.

This week is official job hunt week. Cross your fingers that next time I write here I’ll be employed… Wish me luck.

After Amsterdam, I went on the Munich tour BOTH times I visited the city plus the Pub Crawl tours which have never been a disappointment. So of course I tracked them down in Berlin.

Our first day in Berlin was pretty uneventful. We arrived, having only slept on the plane and were told we couldn’t get into our room. Hmm.. I’m still wearing my clothes from Thai Square, I haven’t showered, I haven’t slept. I don’t look or feel good at this point. But there’s nothing to do but go out into Berlin to grab some lunch, unpleasant body odour or not. And so we did. A wander around Museum Island and a club sandwich later, we returned to the hostel and collapsed in the reception for awhile. We were woken from our nap and told we could finally get into our room. Where we slept. Again.

The evening didn’t go to waste though! We dragged ourselves up, showered and put on clothes that didn’t smell like a London club and headed out to dinner and a little music. Tom decided to be as authentic as possible and get a jellied leg of pork. I went with the salmon… Then we went in search of somewhere for a few quiet drinks and found the B Flat club. It’s the perfect place if you’re looking to grab a few cocktails in a slightly hidden bar with fogged up windows and a grand piano. It also helps if you like jazz music. We listened to the sounds of the Diego Pinera Group for a couple of hours before finally calling it a night and collapsing for a very good nights sleep. I should mention that our hostel, City Stay, was great by the way. Perfectly located in the centre of Berlin just by a train station, with a good bar and really nice rooms. I would recommend checking it out.

The next morning, after a false start, we found the Sandeman’s New Berlin Free Tour and walked around the city for almost five hours with Nikolai, our Bulgarian born, American raised, German resident guide. The tour was great if not exhausting, but these tours are always the perfect way to see the city and actually put all the buildings and sites into context. That night it was off to the New Berlin Pub Crawl which started in Zapata. Zapata was exactly how I imagined Berlin bars to be. Dark, graffiti-ed, not unlike an abandoned warehouse with a table tennis table in the middle. Naturally. We moved on to a few other bars with our friends from the Free Tour before we parted ways as they went off to the clubs and we headed home since we were determined to get up the next morning and make good use of our final day.

True to our plans, we were up and off to the Jewish Museum bright(ish) and early(ish). We spent far too much time in the new exhibit which was really interesting, and so unfortunately had to rush a little through the permanent exhibit which was a shame. It’s a very good museum. Then it was off to our Red Berlin tour (also provided by the lovely people at Sandemans) where Paulo took us around some of the lesser known parts of Berlin, as well as some famous sights like the East Side Gallery. We saw a part of what is now called the ‘Death Strip‘ (the space in between the Berlin Wall that stopped anyone from having a hope of jumping across). Paulo had a pretty interesting perspective on everything which was nice. Wasn’t the average talk about how the wall was nothing but terrible and that the opening of the wall is the greatest thing to have happened to Berlin. There’s a lot of different opinions out there and a lot of sides to the story, so it was nice to have a tour guide who appreciated that and maybe opened my eyes a little to what life is really like these days in Berlin.

That night after a way too filling dinner, finding out our train was canceled, and grabbing a taxi just in time, we made it to the airport to make our way back home to London. We arrived at midnight and went straight to packing up the rest of my things to prepare to leave for Sydney the next day….

You can check out their website where you’ll find blogs about myself and the other ‘Explorers’ to find out where we all are!

My latest appearance is here:

http://www.statravelbuzz.co.uk/marianne-is-leaving-the-country…/

Just more ways to find out what I’m up to!

But for now, Amanda needs a bit of help. There are two things you can do to make her life in Senegal easier.

One: e-mail her MP3s. She is dying for some jams to rock to while she rides her bike through the bush into town. If you would like to do this, please e-mail them to me and I will forward them on to her on your behalf. (My contact details are on the ‘Contact’ tab).

Two: Donate a couple of pounds to help her build a well.  She lives in a village of 197 people where she is working to improve the conditions of their health hut in order to try and provide some basic, sanitary care for the people living there, as the closest town is a few hours away by bicycle. She is currently starting to build a well in the hut grounds so that the village has access to clean water.

The well project is only $500 which should hopefully be an easy target to reach. So if you’re looking for a good cause, this is one that wouldn’t otherwise get much attention. Any amount helps if you want to donate.

That’s all, I promise, just thought I’d pass it around and see if I can help out a friend.

You can read more about it and donate in the link below:

http://appropriateprojects.com/node/67

It’s hard to really get my head around it all. The fact that I haven’t started packing at all probably helps with that.

Last weekend I managed to head up to Glasgow to see my lovely family one more time before I leave the hemisphere. I realised that having spent the last 12 years of my life in a different continent, whether it was North America, Asia or Australasia, my family have gotten older (and wiser?) and I haven’t been as close and in touch with them as I would like. My ‘baby’ cousin Lucy is 12 years old which seems impossible, my older cousin Martin is married (I was lucky enough to make it to the wedding), and Raymond is in his last year of uni and getting ready to go around the world with his girlfriend.

As excited as I am to head Down Under, it’s definitely going to be hard being so far away yet again. On top of that, I’ll be leaving an amazing home, with the best neighbours I could have asked for, and a job that is the closest to perfect I’ve come so far (I basically get to do this – travel writing – all day, what could be better?).

So here it goes. A week of manic running around and seeing all the faces I’ll miss before I walk through the gate at Heathrow.

That’s my sentimental post of the week. The next one will be more upbeat as I’ll be recounting what is sure to be a fantastic week of celebration and farewell. First stop – a nice little dinner with the one and only Nims at Las Iguanas. As long as I figure out how to get there in the next two hours…

Last Wednesday, I planned to meet up with four friends: two of my London pals and two girls who came into my life during my travels in Asia: Laura, was only involved for a single night on Koh Pha Ngan, but is one of the few who I’ve managed to stay in touch with, the other is Claudia, who, if you’ve been a regular reader of this blog will be a familiar name to you. But I couldn’t resist when what could have been a small, quiet night began rolling downhill and picking up more and more people as it went. It started with Sophie (one of the London pals) messaging our ‘usual’ Wednesday night drinks group on Facebook:

Sophie 12 October at 18:17 Reply

Hello this wednesday we are headed to cha cha moon just off carnaby street for some gorgeous food! We will meet outside at 6.30pm, then head to the john snow pub for 7.30pm!

Lots of love xx

Then I confirmed plans with my two traveling friends, Laura and Claudia; which grew to be Laura, Claudia, Claire, and eventually Emily.