Tristram Zedex Eighty One

After failing to cross even one state border in an 18 hour bus journey earlier in our trip, we managed to cross three in one night this week, although one of the states has such comical origins that it should barely even qualify as such. Quick history lesson. Before 1901 Australia was made up of […]

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The best way to keep up to date on current affairs while backpacking is by reading Newsweek and The Economist. I know I’ve been reading them too much as I’ve started to have vivid dreams about world figures, particularly US presidential candidates. A few nights ago I dreamed I saved Democratic hopeful Barack Obama’s life from […]

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My last two posts were photo-less as their subject matter mainly concerned my digestive tract and stealing internet, neither of which are particular photogenic (unless you had one of those mini fibe optic cameras doctors use to poke around inside patients, or a security camera). To make up for it, here are some pictures of […]

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Part Two - The Free Internet at the End of the Rainbow 
 Click here for ‘Part One - Eating Lots of Processed Cheese.’
There’s an episode of Friends where the free porn preview on Joey and Chandler’s TV accidentally locks. To ensure their free preview lasts as long as possible they don’t change channels and don’t turn […]

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Part One - Eating Lots of Processed Cheese 
My friend Amanda messaged me last week to inform me she was now adjusting to the economic pressures of backpacking in Australia after two months in the second world, money stretching haven of South East Asia. Like her, Thailand was also the last place I traveled in, and […]

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I had to see one of Australia’s gargantuan arachnids eventually. Fortunately John got the worst of it, as the below picture demonstrates.
Click, if you dare…

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I say update, but I’m actually linking you to a video that is twenty years old. Continuing my fascination with Australia’s (indeed, the world’s) most racist dairy product, a cheese the Confederate south would no doubt have gladly put atop their crackers had Australia existed as a nation in the 1860s, a sandwich filler that […]

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In Mount Isa, as far into the outback as you can get in Queensland, the heat is almost intolerable. Walking out of an air conditioned shop is like having your head too close to the oven door when you remove the baking tray, but with no escape from the intense heat belting you across your […]

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Who you end up drinking with in backpacker hostels can be a bit random, and untimely. The rule seems to be that whoever you happen to be sitting next to when you get first drink it at eight o’clock (evening, not morning, unless you’re feeling especially adventurous), that’s who you’ll be getting trashed with for […]

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A small and largely uninteresting video of John failing to play a didgeridoo. My attempt at blowing into the hollow tube wasn’t filmed, so if you’re wondering how I fared, just assume that I was fantastic, the other tourists all gasped with amazement and the tour guide said I could be the next Rolf Harris […]

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