Erik Skye Travel Blog

23 Jan 2012

For the map, click here: Google Maps – Wizard of Oz

Car’s trip odometer: 8,840 clicks (km)

We had just departed Tasmania, and the strong winds of Bass Straight were cutting hard into the open ocean swells, breaking them into heavy chop and knocking brilliant white caps from their crests. The ship rocked side to side, and so much so that I felt uneasy. I’d watch passengers make their way on deck in a routine that went something like this: There would be a quick series of wobbly-legged stutter steps while being thrust forward (and usually a little to one side from the intended path), almost coming to a halt with body leaning, a reach for the nearest object to brace against, regaining of composure and stability with sometimes a bump into another person or object, occasional laughter, repeating while in transit to the next seated position.

I noticed a giant bird holding the same relative position to Spirit of Tasmania II and went to the outside deck for a better view. Its wings remained completely fixed and rigid, flapping not even once during my 15 minutes of observation. It was a glider, but propelled along by some imaginary force and travelling with us at 26 knots. We had a visiting friend (like a dolphin off the bow), who was holding a constant elevation (perhaps 20 meters above sea level) between a procession of hard banking away from the ship (exposing clean white underside), swooping down to aggressively follow the contour of waves below (one wing tip almost touching water), followed by hard banking back towards the ship (exposing dark topside) while peacefully rising back up again to maintain its normal and mysteriously-contrived relative position along-side ship.  Albatrosses are special birds that you can read about by clicking on this hyperlink:  Albatross

I spent my last evening in Australia strolling through downtown Melbourne, which was alive with people walking the colorfully-lite streets, drinking at open air pubs, and eating in ethnic restaurants. I found beer in a gambling casino and sat with locals to watch televisions showing Australian Open tennis (being played right here in Melbourne now), filmed a street musician playing a 2-1/2 meter didgeridoo for spare change, and ate noodles from a restaurant on a street that looked like Chinatown. I snuck a picture of the cook preparing my noodles to go, and he caught me, stepping back from his work and away from me. He complained to a server in Chinese that he didn’t like that (the server came and lightly chastised me). As I received my noodles, I spotted an isolated dish of tiny sliced red peppers and added a huge spoonful of them to my dish, noticing as I did this the direct looks from the same cook and server. They said nothing (to warn me), and I later paid for yet another photography sin (i.e. snapping a shot of the cook without permission) by consuming what felt at the time to be almost a lethal dose of the spicy hot ingredient.

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