Response Questions

1. How did you experience the book? It's not always helpful to talk about whether or not you liked the book, but rather how you felt as you were reading it? Were you pulled effortlessly into the book...or did you have difficulty getting into it? Why?

No, I was not pulled effortlessly into this book because of how the author changes subjects to often and how he talks about history instead of his travels in the places he is visiting.

2. Were you happy about your book choice? Why or why not?

No, I thought that this book would be more exciting since it is about Australia but was actually boring and very hard to pay attention to throughout the book. However, I did find the book very informative of Australia and will now know what to do when I go there myself.

3. Which place discussed in the book did you find the most intriguing? Why do you think that was the case?

I found Sydney the most intriguing because it seems like it has everything and the Sydney Opera House is very beautiful looking. I also liked the town of Katoomba because of the sights there and the Katoomba falls which sound like a lot of fun.

4. What central ideas might the author be exploring-the novel's themes? Consider ideas about the nature of love, the requirements of goodness, the meaning of justice, the burden of the past...basic human issues that are at stake in the book.

It is tough to find a theme for this novel since it is just about his travels in Australia, but I would have to say that the theme to the book is probably that Australia is a beautiful country while at the same time one of the most unforgiving. It has many deadly animals and a very harsh environment in the outback.

5. What do you feel you learned from this project? Please consider the book, the technology involved with producing the project, or any other aspect regarding the project.

I learned that making a blog is more complex than just writing down some stuff and posting it. There are a lot of aspects in making a blog and it is a useful tool in understanding geography.

6. What was the most enjoyable part of the project? Please explain why you felt this way.

The most enjoyable part of the project would have to be searching for cool and awesome videos to put on my blog.

7. What was the most difficult part of the project? Please explain why you felt this way.

The most difficult part of the project was writing the blog entries as though I was living the book because my imagination could only help out so much without some type of visual aid to help with my writing.

Melbourne

Melbourne was the last stop on my journey and this is also where I met my old friend who used to work with me at the London Times. When he went to work that day, his wife showed me around Melbourne and pointed out the various sights. She took me to the Crown Casino on the way to the Immigration Museum, and it dwarfed the Penrith Panthers Club rather easily. It was just like the casinos in Las Vegas and was the only one in the state. Then I went to the museum where I looked at pictures from the 1950s when airplane travel was the quickest way to get to Australia and led to real immigration to the country. The next day I went to my friend’s country house in the King Valley and I learn about the constant and terrible bush fires that happen. After this we went further into Alpine National Park where we met a friend of theirs who was a park ranger. He shows us around the park commenting on the scenery that the park has. He also takes us up to the top of Mt. Bogong where we spend the rest of the day until we drive back to Melbourne. The next day I took a flight to Sydney to end my trip.

Adelaide

The trip to Adelaide was very far, 800 miles or so, and I travelled there on a lonely, forgotten road called the Sturt Highway. On the way to Adelaide, I spent a night in a town called Hay which used to be full of greenery until rabbits and a drought decimated it. The next day I drove through the Barossa valley which was quite different from the barren land that I was driving in. there were lush hills and I stayed in a pleasant town called Tanunda. Then, I finally arrived in Adelaide, which according to the people who live there, is too isolated from the rest of the country to survive. However, I notice that the city seems to being doing quite well, with the England-Australia cricket match being sold out and the museum closed due to a National holiday. I walked through the cities many parks noticing how great they are. I realized that Adelaide is almost the exact opposite from Canberra in that Adelaide is a city with a lot of parks while Canberra is a city in a park. At the end of the day I sat down at a pub in the city and proceeded to have a drink.

Cowra

I left Katoomba and entered the Australian heartland where there were neat and trim farms, and the whole area felt drastically different from Sydney. The gas stations had old-timey pumps and no canopy over their heads, and it felt as though I was back in the American Midwest from long ago. I realized that outside of the cities I just entered into an Australia that was still stuck in the 1950s. I got a great feeling from it because I could just cruise like I used to when I was a kid and driving on a trip was fun again. I even found that the radio stations in the area played songs from the 40s and 50s and hardly ever played a song any newer than those. So I made my way through the countryside to end up in a small town called Cowra. The town, unbeknownst to me was famous for a WWII prisoner of war camp for that held Italians and Japanese soldiers. The Italians almost seemed welcoming of their situation and needed very few guards to watch over them. On the other hand, the Japanese thought of capture as a disgrace and staged a mass breakout that failed miserably. After the visit to the museum I stayed in a motel just outside the town.

Katoomba

My travels have now taken me to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney where I stayed in the tourist town of Katoomba. The trip there was very difficult because I ran into a fog so thick I could barely see two feet in front of the car. The fog in Katoomba was even worse and I almost ran into parked cars going just two miles an hour until I reached Echo Point, a lookout spot that was supposed to be beautiful but instead covered in a thick fog like everything else. There I met and elderly couple who argued with each other about various odd things like weather. I went to sleep that night expecting the fog to be there in the morning, but to my surprise I awoke to a bright and sunny world that was very different from the one before. I went back to the view which turned out to be just the way I pictured it and then made my way over to Katoomba Falls. After my sight-seeing I ended the day content to sitting down and drinking some coffee. I also ran into the old couple I met from the day before and I told them goodbye.

Canberra

The next day I left Cowra and drove to the city of Canberra which was created as a compromise for the two larger cities, Melbourne and Sydney, to become the capital of the area. Canberra wasn’t even on the main road in between the two cities which was the Hume Highway and was also not on any railway lines. I thought I was going to find a pub to go into and drink with the people who just got off of work but I never found one in the suburbs there. Finally, I came out of one street and ended up in downtown, having no clue how I got there. I tried finding a place to eat, but everything was closed for the day and the local kids had no ideas of any good places to eat. I thought about going back to my hotel, but instead figured I would try again to find a place to eat. I found an Italian restaurant that was beside a hotel so I decided that this was the best place I would find and walked right in. After eating dinner, I returned to the hotel to have something to drink in the bar before going to bed for the evening. The next day, I went to the National Capital Exhibition where I got a very large bag filled with brochures that I proceeded to abandon just a little later. The exhibit was excellent and taught me a lot about Canberra and its history. After this, I went back to the hotel to rest up for the trip to Adelaide.

Sydney

My new trip is taking me through Sydney and the rest of the pacific coast region. I started the trip next to the famed Sydney Opera House which was built in the 1950s and the most recognized place in Sydney. For the first time, I did not have a guide to travel with, and so I just wandered around Sydney looking into the Natural History Museum at the various lethal snakes that are in Australia. Next I walked into a park where I was chased by a couple of ravenous dogs that forced me to hop the fence to someone’s backyard for safety. The lady in the house noticed me and froze up because she thought I was a crazy guy from a mental institution, so I tried to not look like a robber and said sorry that I climbed her fence. I let myself out and never saw her again luckily, and I’m pretty sure she thought I was insane and sold the house right away. After that unfortunate experience I started to get ready for my trip to Canberra which was southwest of Sydney.

Day 6 and 7: train ride and Perth

This morning we woke up and were escorted to the highway at Wilcannia where we turned right onto it to take us back to Broken Hill to catch the train. I had an afternoon to spend in Broken Hill before the train left so I used it to view the little sights they had in the town. The places there such as the pub has been used in many movie like Mad Max 2 because it had the sense of being in the middle of nowhere even though it wasn’t. Broken Hill is a very prosperous mining town with an air of business like that of a 1940’s town in America. We stooped to look at one of the large hotels called Mario’s Palace Hotel, which had a bar with cold beer, TV, a grand entrance, and a large wraparound balcony on the second floor. The next day we caught the second Indian Pacific train to Perth and looked at a map to see how far we had traveled in our car. To our surprise we had only covered a very small part of the continent even though it felt like we had been travelling forever. There is not very much to do on the train except eat and watch the vast expanses of the outback pass by and focus on little things. The next day we arrived in Perth and reflected on the fact that we just did something very few Australians had done.

Day 4 and 5: Travels to Menindee and White Cliffs

Today we traveled 250 kilometers to White Cliffs which was an old opal-mining town north of Menindee. The drive there showed to me that the emptiness of the outback was so vast and endless that it gave one a sense of loneliness there, and it felt like we were in a cement mixer the whole time. The population of the town was only 80, but the interesting thing about it was the houses were built into the side of the two white hills. We looked trough the Dug-Out-Underground motel which felt like I was walking into a James Bond movie with its secret tunnels and dark halls. The two things that were appealing to me however, was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my life and the best pub I have ever seen in my life. It did not have the best looks to it with its linoleum floors and laminated surfaces, but it had a great and happy atmosphere to it. What surprised me though was that the owner treasured his TV a lot because he just got it 2 years earlier. I can’t wait until tomorrow, when I drive back to Broken Hill and board the train again.  

Day 2 and 3: I leave for the Outback

This morning I met up with my photographer friend, Trevor Ray Hart, and we took a cab to Sydney’s Central Station to get on our train, the Indian Pacific. It was silvery and sleek and very powerful looking, we got onto carriage G which had surprisingly small cabins. Our route for the train trip was a three day ride across the continent going straight through the Outback to the city of Perth on the far west coast of Australia. The train cars were very nice on the inside and were accommodated with odd music choices that were unbearable to me. The train’s first stop was in Broken Hill, where we went to go pickup a car to drive around the outback. The man who rented us the car knew an awful lot about the complexities that the car contained for driving in the outback, and confused us with his detailed explanation. After we picked up the car we drove to Menindee where we met a man named Steve Garland and went to a local bar that looked exactly like it would in the movies. We spent the night there with him and planned for the morning.

Day 1: Arriving in Sydney

As I was flying into the Sydney airport, I figured out that I did not remember the prime minister of Australia’s name. I found this very important because it emphasized the fact that Australia is forgotten country and not much is known about it. When I came off the plane, I met Deirdre Macken and Glenn Hunt who were from the Sydney Morning Herald and wanted to show me around for the day. First we went to the Museum of Sydney where I found it quite boring even though it’s outside appearance was quite exciting. Next we took a ferry to Taronga Zoo wharf so we could walk the rest of the way to Deirdre’s house so we could eat lunch. After lunch we went to a beach suburb called Manly where I learned how to boogie board……. Sort of, but I mostly sank in the waves. I had a pretty major scare towards the end of the boogie boarding day because I almost got stung by a Portuguese man-of-war which would not feel good at all. Lastly I went with them to a rugby club, which is kind of like a casino here in the U.S., with its endless rows of slot machines that the Australians waste a lot of money on.

Works Cited

Works Cited

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Bryson, Bill. In a Sunburned Country. New York: Broadway, 2000. Print.

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Katoomba Falls. Photograph. Katoomba, Australia.

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"Scarlet Night, Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia - 1600x1200 - ID 21164 - PREMIUM - Nature & Animal Wallpapers - Hi-Res Wildlife and Scenery Photos." Home - Nature & Animal Wallpapers - Hi-Res Wildlife and Scenery Photos. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. <http://desktopnature.com/Nature-Architectural-Wonders/Scarlet Night_ Sydney Opera House_ Sydney_ Australia - 1600x1200 - ID 21164 - PREMIUM.jpg.html>.

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