The Long Way to Fremantle

Having lost the use of my digital SLR for a month, I feel I've made a wonderful return to the world of photography with my Mamiya 645 analog. These first two are of Julia who was my traveling companion during the photography void. The shot below is actually the last photograph I took with my digital SLR before it stopped working, and above is one of the first pictures I took with my Mamiya, but unfortunately the last of Julia as she and I parted ways soon after I picked up my camera from the post in Broome.

Julia and I spent a month together traveling from Darwin to Broome, there we split and she headed to Tahiti to WWOOF at a pearl farm! Julia was a wonderful companion. An Alaskan native, here she is exhibiting her boundless fire expertise. Campfires were always a highlight in Australia, some of my clothes still smell of smoke.

Sam and I met in Broome through gumtree.com.au (Aussie Craigslist). I needed somebody to share travel expenses with, and so did he. Sam is from Germany and has been traveling for more than a year I believe, having spent eight months in Australia alone and Asia before that.

Luckily Sam also scored us a job at a watermelon farm south of Broome. We were both short on funds, and this gave us the chance to replenish. Ten, twelve hour days of watermelon picking is hard on the body, but good for watermelon know-how. Ever need advice on how to pick a good melon at the market? Give me a call. I'm happy to say that I did not grow sick of watermelon during my stay at the farm, and in fact I had a wonderful time.

Enough watermelons! We hit the road.


It turns out Sam loves photography about as much as I do. I got some great Facebook potential photographs from him, I was quite glad because photographers never have any pictures of themselves!

This is Kermit Pool at Karijini. It was a national park full of gorges and refreshing water holes. This gorge in particular was an adventure to discover, as you had to do a bit of climbing and swimming to get in deep.

It was cold.


Aside from beautiful refreshing waterholes, we also came across a fair bit of hot dry sand. These were left behind, not mine.



These shots were taken at Monkey Mia in Shark Bay. This was an amazing place where every morning the crew fed some bottle nose dolphins that would turn up like clockwork. We were assured that the feeding was only 1/10th of their required daily food intake, so that the dolphins did not become dependent on a human food source. We weren't allowed to touch the dolphins but we got in to the water with them at knee height. I even got selected to feed a pregnant momma named "Surprise." It was a beautiful moment for me.



There were lots of spectators all facing one direction...

Therefore lots of butts.

Late in the afternoon I found this dolphin hunting along the beach. Lots of tourists followed it for a while, but I stuck with it until it was just me and it. This was a magical evening, the water was so calm in the bay and the sun had just gone down, creating the most perfect atmosphere for this photograph.

As Sam and I moved along we came across a free campsite. It was a long stretch of beach with dozens of RVs, motor homes, backpackers ect. camping amongst the dunes. But what we also found there were a group of makeshift vacation homes. It seemed to me as if these shacks were built with the intention of making a permanent residence in this beautiful and secluded free camp. The result was a little rag tag, but it made for some fun photographs.

There are lots of pictures in this series of shacks, but I'll post them all another time. One thing I'd like to emphasize is the number of free camps available in Australia. There are countless places where one can just pull over sleep, or if you felt so inclined you could set up camp for a couple of days or months on end. I don't think this idea of freedom is still available in very many countries these days.

We kept moving and kept finding beautiful places, day after day. Sam and I developed into quite a team, and he was often willing to stand into photographs that needed a human subject. He was camera aware and easy to photograph.

Exploring some sand dunes I found a perfect emu track. I have a few pictures of emus, but their tracks really emphasize how bizarre these big birds really are. Don't they look like they came from dinosaurs?

Sunset on the dunes.

To make a long story short, Sam and I made it safely to Fremantle. I am staying here with family friends, and enjoying my time to the fullest. More to come later.

Very Sad

Well to my dismay... my Canon has stopped functioning. I don't know exactly what's wrong, I just know that it's dead. I've gone through denial, grief, and now acceptance. Unfortunately I'm not able to continue blogging at this time. I have had my analog Mamiya 645 sent to me, but those images won't be available until I return home and am able to develop the negatives.

Thank you for following me this far on my journey!

The Outback

After a wonderful couple of weeks in Sydney with family friends, I finally left the East Coast of Australia and began a surprisingly long journey north to Darwin.

A few Japanese tourists and I are mesmerized by the size... the size of everything in Australia. It is a BIG PLACE.

This is Lee Erlin, she helped to make me feel right at home in Sydney while I took a rest from traveling and simply enjoyed home life. The Erlins are friends of my parents, their friendship made during the 1986 America's Cup just so happened to take place in Perth.

This is Clancy, Mike and Lee's daughter who loves horses. I got slightly engaged with the Sydney equestrian community during my stay. I took photos for a trainer, and a wonderful mechanic who's daughter rode at the same place helped me when I decided to buy a car. I should also note that the Erlins also have a fourteen year old son Connor who was good company as well.

Kristen and her wild horse Kora.

Mike introduced me to a friend of his who took me out on his Swan sailboat for a cruise in the Sydney Harbor. That was an incredible day.

So this is my vehicle! I got the idea into my head that it would be easier to drive around Australia rather than take a bus or train. Looking back I'm not sure if that is necessarily true, but "The Beast" or "The Millennium Falcon" or "Ole Faithful" has certainly made it an adventure. She's a 88' Nissan Patrol 4x4. It runs off both LP Gas (Propane) and Petrol. LPG is very cheap here in Australia because they have massive reserves of propane, and it burns clean, so I'm glad to have the option to use it. The car has been running fairly well, but has required a bit of maintenance here or there, and I'll just leave it at that.

Australia is not nice to cars... Really.

The diversity of the road and scenery is abundant. One moment are in lush green forest on the coast, and then for a big lonnnnnng moment you are in desert nothingness.... Otherwise known as the Outback.

There are PLENTY of these guys. I've got lots of kangaroo photos, and I'm sure I'll have many more by the end. I chose to post this one to point out that kangaroos are constantly getting hit by cars, I have chosen not to drive at night for this reason. So cute though eh? See the little Joe?

There is just lots of really unique wildlife here. The bird life in particular is very loud and present, I love it. No photo's of crocs yet.

Lots of great scenery, every sunset I aim to have my camera to my eye.

I went swimming with the crocs here. Although I didn't see any, they tell me that they are definitely there. "Crocs only bite once!" The damn Aussies are always joking with me.

I've stayed in lots of national parks, and free camping sights. Most of the retired population of Southern Australia seems to migrate north for the winter. These folks are camped out here for months! I didn't even catch their names, but before I left this particular couple handed me a bag with cookies, canned beans, and a twenty dollar bill! So nice.

Lots of trees and beautiful sunsets. More is to come, but for now my time at the internet cafe in Darwin is up, and I'm off to see and do more. With very little access to internet or cellular reception, I don't know when the next post will come. But thanks for reading!

Goodbye Aotearoa, Hello Australia

Wintertime in Coromandel, the vacation spot for Aucklanders. I spend about 3 weeks in this beautiful peninsula, a beautiful way to say goodbye to New Zealand.

This is Kiley, when I arrived in Coromandel, my arranged host canceled on me. Frantically I called around, hoping to find a new wwoof host. Nobody could take me, but after many calls I talked to this lovely Canadian who was house-sitting for friends in Whangamata. She was sympathetic to my situation and took me in. We ended up spending a week together, enjoying the west side of the Coro peninsula.

We went to hot water beach, famous for the volcanically active rock bed underneath the beach which heats up the water there. We brought shovels and made an instant hot tub right there at the beach. The water was extremely hot, but purifying.

Next I arrived at the beautiful Mana Retreat on the east side of Coromandel. Here I met many beautiful people and rested my weary traveling bones.

This is The Sanctuary at the top of the hill. There was much wonderful quiet time to be found here. It was simply a sacred place, build on sacred ground.

This is Manuel, my french wwoofer friend who arrived at Mana a couple of days after me. We enjoyed working and cooking together, as well as many hours of ping-pong madness. Here we are at the very top of the mountain that the Mana Retreat is situated on.

This is where I lived at the Mana retreat. It was actually the caravan that the owner brought when he first moved here to start the center. He transformed the caravan into a house, and lived in it while he designed and built the Mana Retreat, and now his guests and wwoofers stay here. It had a marvelous outdoor shower, and a composting toilet.

This is Sol, the founder of the Mana retreat. He was such a wonderful and playful man. He taught me many things, including Tai Ji! He also invited Manuel and I to participate in a sweat that he was hosting at the retreat. This was actually the initiation of the first sweat in this beautiful newly constructed adobe sweat lodge. Here with a group of about twenty, Sol explains the history of the Mana Retreat, and the history of the sweats that have taken place on this land over the past thirty years.

Sol is actually a well traveled Canadian, he landed in New Zealand about thirty years ago, and brought the tradition of the Native American sweat ceremony with him from North America. He reckons that he might have been the first person to perform a sweat in New Zealand.

This is the inside of the incredible sweat lodge before the ceremony began. In the center is where we rolled in red hot rocks. We all sat very close together and endured a three hour sweat. We sang songs, shared our pain, and healed together as new found family. It was such a powerful experience, and for me it seemed a very appropriate thing to do just a few days before leaving New Zealand.

This is Kiri, I met her at the sweat. She offered to take me into her home in Auckland a couple of days before my flight. Kiri is a wonderful person who supports herself as a jewelry-maker. She toured me around Auckland during my last days in New Zealand. She could not however, be there with me the day before I left, and so she even connected me with a friend of hers who took me out to a nearby rainforest on my very last day to reconnect one last time with the land before leaving.

Content with my journey, and readying myself for Australia.

My entrance into Australia has been a graceful one. I'm staying with friends of my parents. "Big Mike" and Lee Erlin, and their two amazing children Connor and Clancy. They have taken me in, and my first few days here have been wonderful.

A hint of things to come. I am carefully feeling out my next adventure in Australia, and it feels good.