Tag: Australia

Adventure Toward Ayers Rock

By Mike Huber

At the time of this writing I am sitting in my hotel room, which happens to be in an underground cave in the tiny opal mining town of Coober Pedy.  Normally this would sound crazy, but 50% of the residents in this town live underground so it’s perfectly normal to be living as someone on the desert planet of Tatoonie would live.  It is deep in the Australian Outback hundreds of miles from nothing. How I even ended up in this town is something I am still piecing together, but alas, here I am typing this up as an aboriginal drum beats from the distant hills and echoes into my cave dwelling.

I apologize for being on a brief writing hiatus. My travel schedule has been beyond nonstop (even for me). I have only had two days off since leaving New Zealand in early April.  In doing so there were multiple countries I toyed with visiting.  Australia was one that kept being recommended, but I didn’t really feel the calling for it. So was hesitant when I booked a one-way ticket to Sydney and was expecting a short stay to just check the box. Well, life had other plans for me as I am currently six weeks into this giant country with no end in sight.

When I say no end in sight, I literally mean no end in sight.  Having motorcycled much of the Southwestern United States over the past six years I think I have a pretty solid grasp on distances and expansiveness with large pockets of isolation and nothingness.  I knew what large areas were and how to negotiate them, even on two wheels.  I couldn’t have been more ignorant of what expansiveness really is.

Expansiveness is driving 100+ miles and not seeing another car and only a random oncoming truck towing three or four trailers that when it passes you throws your tiny rental off the road due to the wind gust.  Expansiveness is slowing down to some type of an unknown road hazard in front of you only to realize it’s an emu that decides to attack your car so you must quickly swerve and speed up.  Expansiveness is clicking search on both AM and FM radio stations only to have it indefinitely spin without a station to be found for hours.  Expansiveness is Australia.

Australia is my home for the time being and I am trying everything possible to do more than just scratch the surface of this foreign and incredibly large part of the world. With every type of climate you can imagine and wildlife that is other worldly, cute, dangerous, and some a combination of the three.  This article series will take you through my journey of Australia as I make my way towards Ayers Rock (Uluru) in the great Australian Outback.

Never miss an ExNotes blog:

Don’t forget: Visit our advertisers!

Tested to Destruction: Rossi Boots

We’re starting a new feature here on ExhaustNotes.us called Tested To Destruction. TTD will be a life-cycle product test from purchase to the dumpster. You’ll not find so complete a product test anywhere else on the Internet, go ahead and look around. Due to the long test periods involved some of the products may be discontinued and no longer available. There’s not a lot we can do about that. One other note: By definition we are testing to destruction so all products will fail in the end. It happens to the best. Nothing lasts forever.

I first became aware of Rossi boots in Australia. Nearly every tradesman wore the things and the ones I spoke to raved about the classic, made in Australia boot. I was on extended leave in the outback and needed a tough boot for hiking and camping so I bought a pair of Rossi Enduras. The Rossies aren’t cheap (like me) but I splurged and who doesn’t love having boots named after the greatest modern-era motorcycle road racer?

The Rossies were comfortable from Day One. No blisters or slipping, soft and flexible with pull tabs and elastic sides to make installation a breeze. No wonder the Tradies wore them. That first pair lasted through Australia and back in the States through several boat rewires.

In my real job I worked in very oily conditions. The bilge of a commercial fishing boat is full of slimy gunk. Unlike every other boot or canvas shoe I have purchased, the Rossi soles stayed firmly attached to the uppers. The Rossies easily outlasted four pairs of regular boots.

One thing that disintegrates after a couple years is the rubber liner inside the bottom of the boot. This liner is supremely comfortable when new and I guess you can replace it with another liner. This has happened with both pairs I’ve owned. When mine fell apart I pulled out the pieces and kept on pouring concrete. The boot is still comfy without the liner, just less so.

The boots in the photo are my second pair of Rossies and they have gone through the wringer on countless construction jobs. Imagine: 2 pairs of boots for over 5 years of hard use. I used to go through work boots every 6 to 9 months. My second pair, like the first, never came apart and I’m retiring them only because they look so bad people keep offering me money for a cup of coffee.

I wear these boots when riding motorcycles, dirt or street. The comfort is great and being able to easily slip them off on hot rides is so nice. I know slip-on boots may fly loose in a crash situation so save your breath: I make my gear choices for me. You make your gear choices for you. Anyway, Flat Earthers and Vaccine Deniers tell me it’s safer to be thrown clear of the boot in an accident.

You can buy Rossi boots online but make sure to get the ones made in Adelaide, Australia. They’re not very stylish and you can expect to pay a lot but it’s like you’re getting four pairs of boots for the price of one. There are several boots that look the same as Rossies but are lower quality. Shop wisely.

Back in the USA

Another day, another 14-hour flight, and another week, another time zone reversal.  I love traveling to Asia; I don’t relish the thought of taking a month to get back on US time.   That’s what happens every time I travel to Asia.  When I visit China, Singapore, Thailand, or any of the places I go to in Asia, I get adjusted to Asia time in one day.  Then it takes a month when I get home to adjust to US time.  It doesn’t matter if I’m in Asia for 2 days, 40 days, or 13 months (I’ve done all three); it always takes forever to get back on our time.   I don’t think it has anything to do with direction; it has everything to do with what’s home.  My Asian friends tell me they experience the same thing…when they come to America, they’re on our time in a day or two, and then it takes them weeks to get back on their home time once they’ve returned.

This adventure was two weeks for Susie and me.  It started with 4 days in Singapore, where I taught a class to folks working in the Singaporean defense industry.  I get invited to Singapore to do that a couple of times a year; the topic this time was Failure Mode and Effects Analysis.

Singapore defense industry engineers in an FMEA course. Good times!

It’s a 17-hour flight from Los Angeles to Singapore.   You’d be surprised; it goes by quickly.  The courses are fun to do, we always do them in 5-star hotels, and Singapore is a good place to have a good time.   I watched Crazy Rich Asians on the way over during that 17-hour flight (it’s the first time I’d ever seen the movie).  I was surprised at how many of the Singapore locations I recognized in the film.  I like Singapore.

Next, it was a 5-hour flight to Perth, Australia.   You’ve read the blogs about it and the reason we went (Susie met her pen pal Adrienne for the first time).  We had a hoot.   Gresh and Baja John both told me Australia was a lot like the US, and they were right.  Still, they do have a few things we don’t…

Freemantle Prison in Western Australia.   It’s a tourist attraction today.  Back in the day, it was where the UK sent its convicts.
Pouring a gold bar in the Perth Mint. The Nikon showing off its low light level abilities here, in this case at ISO 2000.
G’day, Mate…a python in a Western Australia wildlife preserve…more low-light-level Nikon chicanery.
Tie me kangaroo down, Mate. At one of the restaurants in Sydney, I could have ordered a kangaroo burger, but I took a pass.
Kookaburra, sitting in an old gum tree. We finally met. He wasn’t laughing.

The morning we left Perth, there was a big hub-bub going on outside our hotel as we got into our Uber car, and to my astonishment, the fellow getting into the car in front of us was Scott Morrison, Australia’s Prime Minister.  He had been staying in our hotel.  There were a few security folks around him, but nothing like you’d see in the US.  He looked right at Sue and me from just a few feet away as he passed.   Nope, I didn’t get a photo.  Maybe right now he’s telling people he met one of the two guys running the ExNotes blog.  His friends are probably telling him it didn’t happen if he didn’t get a photo.

From there it was on to Sydney (a 4-hour flight), and we had another fabulous visit.  We didn’t know anybody there yet, but we made new friends and we had a great time walking around in one of the world’s great cities.   Sydney is a beautiful city and it should be on your list of places to visit.

An iconic Sydney photo…the Sydney Opera House.
I spotted this scooter, a new Lambretta, in downtown Sydney and I struck up a conversation with Barry, the guy you see here. This modern Lambretta is manufactured in Taiwan. Now I know two guys named Barry who ride Lambrettas.  You see bikes and scooters in Australia at about the same frequency as you do in the US.
Our new friend Colin in Sydney’s Rocks shopping area.

And there you have it.  It was another 14-hour flight to get from Sydney to Los Angeles and we landed at about 6:00 a.m. today.  It’s good to be home again.