Key Takeaways (News You can Use) - Part I

Summary: format for these key takeaways, what I'd do again, what I'd change, other questions, best practices

So, what did I get out of this? I'm going to take two parts to answer that: 1) Key takeaways (that others could use), and 2) what I got personally from this. That second one may take more time and this first one may be more useful for others in their own travels. Enjoy.

What I would do again (and recommend to others):

1) Renting a normal car. Given the length of the trip, buying a used car in Cairns and dumping it upon my return to Cairns was not an unreasonable option. Still, for a little less than $3000, I had a quality vehicle (Toyota Camry with 12,000 km) and the support of the national Hertz network in the event of car problems. Additionally, given that I was traveling in the wet season, some expected that I would rent a 4 wheel drive car. No need. At no point did I think "gosh, if only I had a 4wd vehicle". I stayed on paved roads and when those roads flooded (10 days and 3 days, respectively, after I passed through towns like Kununurra and Fitzroy Crossing), they flooded in a way that one more spinning axle would not have overcome. For example, Kununurra's road was under 3 meters of water (according to a radio report I heard 10 days and a couple thousand km later in Perth). Either way, I would be hanging out in the hotel and waiting for the water to go down. These were not flash floods, just heavy rains and rising rivers. Likewise, in Fitzroy Crossing, which flooded a couple days after I was there, the road was under almost a meter of water. Even if the water was not moving, would you drive your kid through 3 feet of water in a Land Rover? Me neither. There are Land Rovers outfitted with breathers that go up above the vehicle - we saw them all the time - but "cheating death" (and driving underwater in croc-infested regions counts as cheating death for a few reasons) was not part of the plan. Additionally, whether thinking of road noise and general comfort or looking at fuel prices of $1.22 to $1.81 per litre (typically around $1.40), I would rather drive a car. (Note: A$1.40/liter translates into about US$5/gallon)

2) Starting in Cairns and going counterclockwise. Since I knew that it was summer (and wet season), I knew that the likelihood of a delay due to weather was greatest on the top side of the continent. Thus, it was best to go into it first because if there was going to be a delay, I wanted time to make up for it. While it was in fact hotter this way, it allowed me to see the sparsely populated part of Australia early. As such, it allowed me to get used to driving (and being) in Australia without too many other vehicles being involved. This was good not so much for remembering to drive on the left (I had that part) as just getting used to the roads. A good example is that I learned about Australia's stringent following of speed limits before I got to where all the speed cameras were. Going at my own pace (fast, in this case) across those more sparsely populated areas also allowed me to take it slow in places like Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, and the Gold Coast. Going the other way, I would have been forced to *hope* for good weather in order to make my flight home.

3) Staying in hotels, motels, road houses, and a friend's house instead of camping. There are many great things about Australia, but the idea of intentionally allowing a toddler (and myself) to sleep out in the elements where the spiders, snakes, or even just mosquitoes and rain could get to us just does not make sense. I know the odds of a snake bite or spider bite making him sick (or worse) were low, but I just would not sleep soundly in the wild. (Yes, I am a city person) There were enough insect noises in a few of the motel rooms across the top - no need to get closer to nature at night (the accommodation in Cairns, Darwin, and Broome had no bug issues). The variety of lodging added quite a bit to the trip. The great places were great (Hilton Cairns, Westin Melbourne, Conrad Jupiters Gold Coast, Adelaide Hilton, and Brisbane Hilton above all). Good thing we had hotel points, because that would have cost an awful lot. Still, some of my best experiences were at places like the Fortescue River Road House "near" (and I use that term loosely) Karratha, WA, the Albion Pub in Normanton, Qld, the Best Western in Albany, WA, and the Carlton Pub Hotel in Geelong, Vic. While none of these places were deluxe resorts, all had memorable characters that made them worth highlighting. Still others, like the Mangrove Hotel in Broome and the Holiday Inn on the Esplanade in Darwin were lucky finds - great places where I would happily stay at when I am back there. Anyhow, those hotels allowed for contact with people after long days of travel. Additionally, just showing up and figuring it out (rather than booking ahead of time) led to plenty of good choices and the ability to judge on the site.

4) Seeing the sparsely populated parts. It would have been easier and understandable to fly to Darwin & Perth and do my driving from Adelaide to Cairns. I would save 10,000 km of driving and nobody would blame me. On the other hand, I would have missed out on several of the experiences listed above and I would wonder about those missing corners of Australia. Seeing towns like Cloncurry (QLD), Daly Waters (NT), Kununurra (WA), Carnarvon (WA), and Eucla (WA) really gives you a different view of this country. The same could be said of the US: seeing Longville, Minnesota or Roanoke, Virginia or Fort Collins, Colorado would show a visitor to America something different than the usual stops on the New York-Washington, D.C.-Orlando-Las Vegas-Los Angeles-San Francisco circuit.

5) Touring with Alex at this age. First off, the bonding was great. He and I are on the wavelength more than ever (as you would expect). He may not directly remember this, but had he been older he might have been bored senseless at the driving. He played with various toys, asked questions, sang with music, and told me not to sing with music. Even so, he did ask that we stop the car and get out a few times. Had he been 5 or 7 or 10, he would have done so much more (or just played a Gameboy or something comparable and never looked up). He will see the contents of this blog enough that he will have a good chance of remembering parts of this trip that were photographed. As for the worry of him getting sick or injured while we were in a remote location - yes, I was concerned. What mitigated it for me was that I was aware of the risks and prepared accordingly. From likelier risks - don't drive at night to avoid hitting large wildlife and wearing sunscreen - to those less likely yet existant risks - carrying a compression bandage (for snake or funnel web spider bites) and wearing deet (for mosquitoes that could carry the Ross River virus). Not to be too much of a control freak, but I tried not to be surprised by anything on this topic. We also had enough food & water to last a few days when traveling in the remote parts, not that there was really any chance of being stranded for days anywhere since we stayed on paved roads. Above all, no first world country has more experience and systems in place to manage things like that. The competence that I saw in Australia's doctors only reinforced that confidence.

6) Watch very little TV. Maybe the reason I think Australians are upbeat is that I watched the news about three times in two months. Now I still heard news on the radio and read it in the paper, but TV news is generally more sensational, melodramatic, and crisis driven. Likewise, I saw a little TV programming to get a feel for local shows, but I did not come to Australia to watch reruns of Friends. Of course, when you're not watching TV, you're doing something (likely) more memorable.

7) Missing the things I missed. In a future visit, I will go to Tasmania and Uluru (Ayer's Rock). Exmouth and the Ningaloo Reef are also interesting destinations that I hope to see in Western Australia. They've got a cool wave rock in the southern end of the state, but I just don't see that I would make it out there if I missed it this time. While it may not have seemed like it, I did skip a few noteworthy wine regions in South Australia and Hunter Valley, NSW. There are plenty more things that I could have visited, naturally. The point is that you can't get to it all, even in two months. Had I missed Darwin, Monkey Mia, Penfold's Grange in Barossa, or the Great Barrier Reef (this one was a bit of a challenge to do with Alex), I would be kicking myself and rationalizing it to you. I am not kicking myself or rationalizing. The tradeoff of an extra day or two in the car (or a rushed flight to and from Tasmania) did not seem worth it at the time - or in retrospect. I'll get there, Tas.

8) The Trip. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. When I got to Cairns, I wanted to take a left and do another lap around the continent. Seriously. This experience was amazing. More on this in Part II (but hopefully not too self indulgent).

What I would not do again:

1) Purchase the same Satellite Phone plan. While I would still bring a sat phone, I would have gotten the most basic plan: Go for the cheapest phone rental, not cheapest per minute outbound or (in my case) free incoming calls. First off, the quality of the calls is not very good, so it is better to call (outbound) from pay phones with a calling card. Second, reception only works with a clear view of the sky, so you are not going to leave the phone on or carry it around like a mobile phone because it does not work indoors (or even in the car, from what I could tell). Third, the size makes it a little prohibitive to just carry it around. Fourth, the rate to call sat phones is obscene. For some reason, I thought the pricing would be like international calls, but it was more like $10/minute. Free incoming calls meant nothing in that case. I would still have brought it because in the event of an emergency (automotive or otherwise), I would have really needed it. Depending on how available I wanted to be or how many calls I planned to make, I might have considered a mobile phone (primarily for use from Adelaide to Cairns).

2) Have Sprint PCS as my phone service in the US. I told Sprint that I wanted to put my phone on the most basic plan (just keep my phone number and v-mail) starting Jan 25. On Jan 24, my last day in the US and the last day to wrap up odds and ends, my voicemail stopped working. Additionally, my phone stopped receiving calls (people just got a busy signal). Nobody at Sprint could figure it out for the first three calls to customer service, but on the fourth they did.  So, my last day in the US, I was completely out of reach.  I still have the same phone number, but I am now with T-mobile.

3) Communicate better ahead of time. We have a friend in Perth that we missed because I was ahead of my "target" schedule. I reconnected (via e-mail) with a guy I was friends with growing up about 10 days after I was in his area (Geelong/Melbourne). Would have been nice to have coffee with both.

Other burning Alex questions:

How did Alex really handle the whole thing? Missing Mommy etc? Also, why was Alex smiling the whole time? Was he that happy or were you editing heavily?

Actually there is only one photo that was left out because Alex was not smiling.

Here you have a meltdown photo from Melbourne. Bulgarians will recognize the "Martinichka" red & white charm for the first of March, which is when this was taken. One thing is that I was rarely inspired to photograph him (or anything) when he was visibly unhappy. Another is that he really was happy most of the time. Third, he loves seeing himself on the computer, so he generally smiled for photos. (He made the connection himself) He would get whiny now and then, but rarely unhappy and the bad mood never exceeded 30 minutes. A few of those moods (mostly in Sydney) were traced back to a tooth coming in. He mentioned mama, asked for mama, and asked for a certain song about mama to be played sometimes (especially right after Aneta left Melbourne). Otherwise, we did look at photos of her and other familiar friends and family most days. It may not be fair to assume that this would apply to other kids, but this particular kid did really well with her absence.

Best Practices for a big trip:

1) Planning...

• Have a big picture idea of where you want to go without a set itinerary for flexibility
• Think through what you need, what to buy here, what to buy there
• Use the internet to check a few prices so you can budget realistically
• Pack Light (no, lighter)

2) Traveling...

• Embrace it and try to live like the locals where practical - read local papers, listen to non-news radio, be outgoing (yes, I am addicted to vegemite and I drive the speed limit for now, but I'm over meat pies)
• Let yourself fall "out of the loop" to allow you to keep your mind on the present (i.e. not work you just finished, what to do on your return) - I called the Muse and wrote this blog daily, but only minimally followed the news, sports teams, or any other gossip
• While saving money is important, pace yourself and mix in a nicer place here and then when feasible - everything about the place you're visiting seems better if you really like the place you're staying (even if just for one night)

Yeah, I know, blog entries are better with pictures.