Sleeping Around
Well on the 2nd night back in Adelaide, I was ridiculously bored, so I headed over to Thomas’s house where he and his housemate Richard were chilling. I was there for so long that I missed the last bus back to my house, so I crashed on the couch. Little did we know that this would start a trend of people staying at Thomas’s house. One night after being there watching a movie Myself, Alexis, Christina, Kalina and Tiago crashed there, with 4 of us on a double mattress (kind of continuing the Tassie tradition)! We also stayed at Kalina’s flat, where 5 of us stayed, and 4 additional people crowded into Alexis and Catherine’s flat. In total I actually think I slept at other people’s houses more than in my own!
Out and About in Adelaide
Lots of us went bowling one day. I shared a lane with Catherine and Jenneke, and they were impressed by how good my bowling was, but they actually ended up doing better than I did!
When Alexis got back from Tassie we went to pick her up from the airport, and we asked her "Do you want to go home, or to see the longest jetty in the world?" She agreed to the latter and we headed to the jetty. I don't know where Thomas got his facts from, but it definitely wasn't the world's longest jetty, but still a random trip to the beach!
The weather was really bad for a week or so, with near constant rain on a couple of days (which I’ve never seen here). We were all going to go and see an open air film at the Botanic Gardens, but it was chucking it down, so we decided to go to Kalina’s to watch the movie we were supposed to have seen (Breakfast at Tiffany’s). It was really funny actually: 6 of us crammed into Tiago’s really old car. I was sitting by the back right window (which didn’t close) and got soaked from the rain. Kalina, Jay and Alexis were squeezed in next to me balancing a box of tools, etc on their laps. And through all of this, Christina was cosy in the front passenger seat with a coat on, which I could really have used!
On the days where the weather was good, more often than not we ended up at the beach!
The 14 Hour Wait for Pizza
One night, 11 of us ere at Thomas's watching a movie, and we decided to get pizza from
Domino's. We ordered everything online at about 9.30pm, and it said the order would arrive
by 11.45. This seemed to be a little late, but we thought nothing more of it. By 12.15, we
checked the order again, only to find it was actually going to arrive at 11.45 the next
morning! Seven of us stayed there that night, and the pizza actually arrived. We were
wondering whether they thought it ws a joke to order pizza 14 hours in advance. The
delivery man was actually 15 mins late as well!
Camping
We decided to go camping for one night on the beautiful Yorke Peninsula (where I first learnt to surf). The journey was uneventful, until Thomas’s car completely died (see next section). After we left the car with Jeff the mechanic we crammed into Richard’s car and continued to drive south on the peninsula, searching for the perfect camping spot.
We eventually found this amazing beach, where there were no people. The sea was really far out, and you had to walk at least 500m before you reached the water! It was classic Australia: untamed natural beauty. After finally managing to erect the tents in the sand and wind, we lit the fire and started boozing. The 7 of us (Me, Thomas, Alexis, Catherine, Richard, Davinia and Big Russ) managed to get through a bottle of vodka, half a bottle of gin, a bottle of red wine and most of a goon (Aussie word for shitty box wine), and Alexis rolled the best cigarette (apparently), even though she was drunk! Whilst this was happening the sun set (as it normally does) making the clouds turn into brilliant shades of purple, orange, red and pink. The disadvantages of getting drunk on the beach are that things get broken: I ruined my favourite hoodie and destroyed my camera. So, if you add Thomas’s car dying. It was quite a destructive trip! But it was still really good fun nonetheless.
Cars
Well as I said above, Thomas’s car died on the way to the YP. His car was reliable, and we were going to travel in the summer break with it. However, the second travel time came near, the car started to play up. Taking it to the YP was a test, and it failed, despite being OK’d by a mechanic a couple of days before. After passing road works, Thomas accelerated, and by the time the car reached 100/110 kph the car died and smoke was billowing from the engine. Alexis, who was asleep on the back seat was awoken by “Shit, get out of the car!” Jeff the mechanic could do nothing, but towed the car to his garage anyway. Thomas then sold the car to a wrecker for $60 scrap! Considering he bought it for about $1000, it was a real loss.
So, our main means of travel was gone, yet a car is the best method of transport up the east coast. There was either going in planes and coaches, which limits your options, or renting, which would’ve been way too expensive. Therefore we bought another car from a dealer. Thomas wanted to completely avoid buying a car for the same price as the old one, and rightly so. Of course all dealers are dodgy bastards, but the car we bought had an excellent service history, was all in working order and seemed to have no real problems, so we bought it for $3500.
During this time Thomas’s girlfriend Ines arrived, and the travelling quartet was complete. On 18th December we left Adelaide, and I would not be returning ‘til February.
See my Facebook photo album which goes with this entry:
Inbetween Travels...
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