Pre-trip - January 24, 2009

G’day Mate.- January 24, 2009

OK, maybe they only talk that way on television. It’s hard to tell because we haven’t left yet, but if the contacts we’ve made so far are any indication, the conclusion is usually “cheers”. We’re deep in the throws of preparation to leave. Newspapers have been stopped, lists have been made of last-minute errands, expectations are (hopefully) managed among clients, coworkers and others. Now the devil is in the details.

Australia is different from other trips we’ve made. We’ve done the typical things – made charts to convert currency, distance, time, ordered some cash to get us from arrival through the first few days (their money is cool – multi-colored and multi-sized; the larger the bill, the more it’s worth), but there are lots of unique things that haven’t been in some of our other trips.

First, we have to manage the time change. Saying that one is going to Australia is a lot like saying that you’re going to the US – it is a huge country, and we’ll be spanning it from Perth, on the far west coast to Melbourne, Cairns and Sydney. To give you some comparisons, imagine flying across the ocean, landing in Atlanta. Then immediately jump to Los Angeles, then back to Atlanta, up to New York City, and down to Washington DC. It’s a big country.

It’s also summertime there, which means getting our summer wardrobe up and running during the off season. Fortunately, most things don’t get packed too far away. Our goal is to have the bulk of our clothes in one carry on each. We got nifty new bags for Christmas that have a zip off day pack that holds laptops and other essentials. We’ll have to take a checked bag, too, primarily because of Eddie’s suits that have to come along with us. Overall, though, our goal is to travel light and fast. Disposable clothes will be coming along, and, as in Budapest / Vienna / Prague, we’ll be leaving a trail of raggy underwear and T-shirts across a foreign continent.

For right now, there’s lots of little things to do. It escaped me until this morning that their electricity is 220 rather than 110, and thus a converter has to be secured to go along with the ever-burgeoning list of electronic gadgets. Eddie got a new digital video camera for his birthday, and we hope to be able to supplement the blog with movies this time. I’ve also found the cord to the camera, so maybe we can actually download some pictures as the trip goes along as well.

Excited doesn’t begin to describe our attitudes. Eddie’s planning and working the net for months is going to pay off in the activities that we’re going to do – more about those later. Right now there’s things to do and daylight’s burning.

Cheers.