The Incredible Australia

[TObject]

I am back!!! Woo hooo! That was fun.

Sydney to Cowra to Hillston to Menindee to Broken Hill to Tibooburra to Innamincka to Birdswille to Roma to Rainbow Beach to Fraser Island to Brisbane to Grafton, and back to Sydney we covered almost 4,000 miles mostly on dirt roads. The distance is equal to about half way the distance from Los Angeles to Australia, as the plane flies.



I took about 5 GB of pictures, which I will need to devise a way to share. Plus I have pictures from Matt, and friends that joined us on the Fraser Island part of our journey (that island is the biggest sand island in the world with wild Dingoes, and heaps of other animals, streams, dunes, and rainforests, shipwrecks, and you can drive on the beach there, just watch out for tide).

Interesting and historical places, lots of wild animals. From final resting places of early explorers to exploded paddle steamer ship boiler on the Darling River. From the barren deserts littered with animal bones to banana plantations of the boomerang coast, Australia is an exciting and diverse place.

In the area of packaged food products Australia is way ahead of the United States. Flavored Tuna cans, for instance are delish.

The people in Aussie land are wonderful, and not in a rush: always happy to share a story, or recommend a place to visit.

Huge thanks go to Matt Nolte ? the chief organizer and mastermind of this incredible Australian Expedition.

I am off to read the 13 thousand e-mail messages I received while I was away for 3 weeks. It felt like 3 days.

[Wind_Danzer]

Sergey!!!

I got your call but I was in the air and didn't get it until after I landed.

I'm gald to see you had a good time and I can't wait to see the pics!!!

[Joe Dillard]

WOW, awesome Sergey! Looking forward to seeing more pics!!

[TObject]

Hey Jamie,

Here is where I was calling from:


A little town of Innamincka (population 14 people or so) by Cooper Creek in the North Eastern corner of South Australia. The phone is powered by solar cells, and the tower on the background is how I assume the signal goes. There is a bunch of retranslation towers all over the Outback to bring communications into remote areas.

The round buildings in the picture contain public toilets, showers, and laundry. The later consists of a sink with brown water. We were considering to do our laundry there when we learned that there was also a coin operated laundry in town, along with more civilized showers (still with brown water), although with a broken dryer. No worries, we did our laundry and hung the clothes to dry, which they did very quickly ? douh! Desert!

Joe, thanks for the tips you gave me before the trip ? very useful.

I am ordering a new computer today to deal with the heaps of digital pictures I brought. My old computer is not fast enough and running short on space.

[Wind_Danzer]

Man, that is soooo cool!!!!!! Thanks for taking a small part of the day to call me, it really meant a lot to have that message on the phone.

I can't wait to see all the pics!!!

[speaceman]

Welcome back Sergey.

I can't wait to see the pictures.

Australia has been on the list of places to visit for a long time.

Everyone I have ever talked to who went there has liked it.

Sounds like you had a good time.

[Robert J. Yates]

Sound like maybe someone needs to host a meet and greet so that Sergey can do a slide presentation

Sergey, you covered a ton of ground - that must have been very cool. Glad you are back safe and I'm looking forward to more pictures.

[ausjeep]

You didn't even come down and drop into Melbourne and visit me
The funny thing is you just saw about 1/20th of the whole country

Hope you had a great time.
If anyone ever wants to visit Melbourne/Victoria just let me know.
There is a spare room, an amazing city, sights to see, bushland to explore and jeep trips to get involved with.

cheers

z

[TObject]

Yeh, if there is only one thing to know about Australia, is that it is BIG.

I had a sticker or a fridge magnet idea: show the outline of Texas in comparison to outline of Australia ? only Texas is bigger, and Australia is somewhere in the corner. I reckon, non-Aussies would usually not get the joke, though.

I had awesome time, and I'll be back.

[TObject]

Here is a little spoiler to set the mood:

Click here for video.

[NAILER341]

glad you're back sergey.
it sounds like a great trip. cant ait to see the pictures.

[Iceman]

glad you had fun in Down Under Sergey

Did you do any scuba diving while there (read: underwater pictures from the Barrier Reef?)?
And ain't Fraser Island something special ... good memories come back to me when thinking about my time in Ozzieland

[Gordo]

Originally posted by ausjeep
You didn't even come down and drop into Melbourne and visit me
The funny thing is you just saw about 1/20th of the whole country

Hope you had a great time.
If anyone ever wants to visit Melbourne/Victoria just let me know.
There is a spare room, an amazing city, sights to see, bushland to explore and jeep trips to get involved with.

cheers

z

yeah they didn't go too far south coz I warned them they would be eaten by all the hungry mexicans :P

[Gordo]

Hey Sergey,

We figured out y u guys had no streets in Queensland and Fraser Is....

...I had loaded the nsw/act ONLY version of software for you as a special treat for you to find all the streets and tracks in other states by using the FORCE

All fixed now for your next Aussie invasion...

Glad you made it home without Matt bartering you to any natives along the way for Landie spares.

Cheers,

Gordo

[TObject]

Gordo,

Thanks for setting this stuff up!

As for trading with natives, well, some of that did happen:


Another thing I learned about Australia is that the human population there is very diverse. Besides aborigines it contains following groups of people:

- Mexicans, Yogi Bears, Cockroaches, Crow Eaters, Sandgropers, Top Enders and Dust Eaters, Freaks and Hillbillies, Banana Benders and Cane Toads...

[TObject]

Thank you for you patience. Finally, the web picture album of the Incredible Tour is ready:

http://www.expeditionsaustralia.com/...ncredibleTour/

We also have these and some extra pictures available as a DVD slide show. If you'd like a copy, PM me your snail mail address, and I'll send you one.

I am working on a story about the expedition to go with the pictures.

[Wooders]

WHAT you were in my hometown & didn't let me know

[Bruce David]

Sergey,
Your photos are absolutely spectacular!!!!!!
The composition, color, rang of focus,,,,,, superb.
You should be very proud of them.
Just when I say that is my favorite, a few shots later I?m saying it again.

Glad you had a good time / safe trip.
Going Down-under is on my list of things to do.

[TObject]

Wooders, I guess I'll just have to come down again.

Bruce, Thank you for compliments. I wasn't sure at first that hauling around the photographic equipment was a good idea, but I think it paid off. This was my first prolonged trip with a digital camera, and I feel like I am getting a hang of it.

Australian Outback is a terrific place for photographers. Many filmmakers pack their stuff and go shooting to Australia. For instance, Mad Max 2 was shot near Silverton. The combination of out of this world landscapes and clear light makes it easy to produce very pleasant looking pictures.

Myself and Matt N are working on a story about the trip. Hopefully it will be finished soon.

[Jerry Bransford]

Ahem... somehow, seeing an Aborigine posing on a fancy bricked sidewalk with a brick flower planter behind him just looks odd... it kind of makes me think he lives in the city and makes a living by posing with the tourists at $5 per photo.

[Dan-H]

Originally posted by Jerry Bransford


Ahem... somehow, seeing an Aborigine posing on a fancy bricked sidewalk with a brick flower planter behind him just looks odd... it kind of makes me think he lives in the city and makes a living by posing with the tourists at $5 per photo.

that looks like a CD in Sergey's hand.

wanna bet it's *not* the wiggles