The Millennium Trip – Letter #20

By: Keiron Burchell

Hello everyone,

Apologies once again for the delay with this, my last letter.

I have been back in South Africa for close on two weeks and am still coming to terms with the fact that I do not have to pack my backpack and leave tomorrow. Of course with this happy realisation comes the other, less gratifying thought that I now have to find a job and an apartment to live in.

In Sydney we had a quiet Christmas (not including my nephew and his Xylophone at 5 o’clock in the mornings) and a noisy New Years. Resisting the urge to hang signs around our necks saying IF LOST, PLEASE RETURN TO SOUTH AFRICA, we joined the million odd revelers partying the Millennium away on Sydney harbour and watching those incredible fireworks first hand. The whole night was well, a bit of a blur. Which was fortunate considering the four hours it took us to get back home afterwards. The world did not go dark at midnight. The trains and busses carried on running, and the Y2K bug was resigned to the ‘How To’ section of business planning manuals.

Also in Sydney we did the scenic walk from Coogee Bay to Bondi Beach. We spent an evening at The Basement listening to Rene Gayer, an Aussie singer with a voice like a pack of Gauloise. Pity the music, like all Australian fare, was so relentlessly eighties. Nice voice luv, shame about all that guitar. The highlight for me by far was watching Australia’s new bowling sensation, Brett Lee taking four wickets against India at the SCG.

While travelling in Australia I find that I have to constantly remind myself of how small the national population is. Sydney and Melbourne in particular preen themselves and strut about like a pair of warring peacocks, believing themselves larger than life. The upside is that Australian cities all have the services and public transport to match this belief. For the price of a ferry ride in Sydney you get a tour of the city sights included. The inner-city busses in Perth are free and the Melbourne trams are eco-friendly and only marginally faster than walking there yourself.

Distances are also hard to comprehend in Australia. After New Years we hired a car and spent two days following the Princes Highway to Melbourne, stopping en route to sample the fresh Marlin in Bermagui. As we headed South the weather changed and we were chased through Victoria by lashing rain and gale force winds. The Fauna too changed and by the time we rode into Melbourne, most all of the Eucalyptus had been told to beat it by a posse of Oaks, Pines and Cedars.

Heading west from Melbourne we followed the limestone cliffs of the Great Ocean Road stopping at Bell’s Beach and the spectacular Twelve Apostles.

South Australians will tell you that they live in the driest state on the driest continent in the world. This goes double for their sense of humour. Arriving from Victoria, the thing that strikes you most is the almost total lack of trees or towns. Wheat fields occupy every inch of land and crows guard every fence post for miles. I even spotted a couple Emu’s grazing contentedly close to a homestead. In Adelaide we toured the Barossa Valley wineries, and ate Australian oysters and Whiting. Admittedly, I may have been drunk at the time, but the latter was probably the best fish I have tasted.

From Adelaide we took a 35 hour long Greyhound bus ride across the Nullabor Plain to Perth. After a final two days spent recovering from the bus journey, I flew to Johannesburg.

At a loss for words to describe my trip sufficiently I resort instead to statistics, the Engineer’s backup. Between the 7th June last year and the 16th January this year I spent seven and a half months travelling from Istanbul to Sydney and Perth. I travelled 37,324 km over land and sea and 1,200 km by air. Put more dramatically, this is roughly equivalent to driving once around the equator. I crossed 12 land borders, 16 time zones, 111 degrees of longitude and 75 degrees of latitude, including both tropics and the equator. The trip included fourteen Asian and Australiasian countries together which use fifteen different currencies, contain 2.98 billion people or about half the world’s population, and cover 28.11 million square kilometres of land. Altogether the trip cost US$6354.00, averaging out at US$28.50 per day excluding flights and insurance claims.

So what have I gained from this experience? Well, apart from a collection of second hand travel guides, a previously unrealized affinity for currency conversion, and the ability to say ‘Howzit?’ in another seventeen languages, not much. Due to financial and weight restrictions I did not buy any mementos along the way and my backpack weighed 5 kg less when I finished the trip than when I started it. Neither have I had any hugely profound insights into the real or spiritual world, but I have unquestionably had the time of my life.

Before I go there are a few people I should thank. Firstly Craig, my Editor-in-chief and computer guru for his tireless work on the website. Thanks also to Chris for the BootsnAll website and to Elsa for her help with the photos. Lastly, many thanks to everyone else for all your letters of encouragement.

Both websites will remain on-line indefinitely though the BootsnAll one will now shift to completed travelogues. By the time you receive this letter the rest of my pictures should be on the geocities website, so please do take a look sometime.

Until next time,

Keiron

keironburchell@hotmail.com