First Leg - Canberra to Jindabyne

We all met up outside Questacon at 7:00am, bags packed and bikes and bodies a-ready for the 119 km ride to Cooma. Where are we going? This way - to Melbourne!
Not all was perfect however. It was early morning, there were dark clouds, and a misty rain. We cursed the skies, yelling it would take more than a bit of water to stop us. Our cries were heard and the heavens opened up. We were stranded at Michelago for half and hour while we waited for the rain to let up. It didn't, so cold, wet and tired we pushed on.

Here's Emily Jules and Chris currently the wettest people alive.

Two early tube puctures to Chubb was also a feature of the first day, and Chubb's skill in changing and patching tubes became nearly a daily ritual for the first week. All ended well twelve hours later when the beleagured troops arrived at Tim's humble abode. We set our clothes to dry in his garage enjoyed a succulent feast involving variuos meats and salads before retiring to the local pub for a few sneaky ones. There's Tim being huge in the background. Day 2 dawned, and we awoke to a full breakfast of bacon, eggs, fruit salad and all the yummy stuff.

Brekkie and preparations at Tim's.

Our hearts were lifted by the small patch of blue sky that coyly peeked through the clouds. It was a tough slog uphill towards Jindabyne, at one stage we reached 1080 metres above sea level (Canberra is at 500). Its all worth it though when you spend fifteen minutes climbing a steep hill to be greeted by a vista such as this one. Arriving at Jindabyne we snuck a couple of us into a small cabin, reminiscing over our circus tour accomodation. The closest pub offered cheap arse fish and chips so we indulged in some fried food and beers. The girls retired early, but myself Chris and Chubb powered on to another pub where we preceded to solve all of the world's major issues in heated discussion. Day 2 was a 62 km trip. Total distance 181 km

Day 3 was a first rest day. Some time was spent fixing bikes, checking tourist info for the best route the mountains, lunch in the national park and fly fishing for Danene. A great day for rest as the sun was out. We also got a first taste of the fly plague...

Jules, Chris and Emily jiving at Lake Jindabyne after lunch.

Quest2Fed2 - Introduction

At the end of an illustrious academic career, six (now) ex-students with limited plans for the future realised they had nothing to do and about sixty years to do it in. In order to halt the encroaching insanity synomous with boredom a road trip was planned - a road trip with a slight twist.

Five circus freaks and one surgeon decided to cycle from Questacon in Canberra - to Federation Square in Melbourne. We rode south from Canberra through the Great Dividing Range down to Lake's Entrance on the coast. Turning west we than followed the Bass Strait all the way to Melbourne in an epic 970km, 15 day adventure. As a side competition we all had team shirts, the idea was to get as many signatures as possible from people we met along the way. No local could sign more than one team shirt. The rider with the most signatures received a beer from the other participants at Fed Square. All's far in beer and war!

We rode through blistering heat, downpours of rain and clouds of flies. We camped out, met kooky locals, snuck people into cabins, and performed for food. We saw dangerous animals, were attacked by wombats and possums, eaten alive by mozzies, urinated on by sandflies, defacated on by pidgeons and even removed roadkill from the bitumen. Oh the memories, oh the pain...

The Team

Front Row: Dan Chubb, Chris Lauf, Julia Cleghorn, Danene Jones, Emily Lapinski, and myself

Back Row: Albert Einstein

2007 wrap up

Well, its the end of a hectic year. With a few months to go before I start my PhD (hopefully) and once again losing my spare time by joining the Fenner Elite as Sub Dean I have decided to tour eastern Australia.

Thursday 22nd marks the first leg. I leave Canberra with four mates from the Science Circus as we start our marathon push bike ride from Questacon, Canberra to Federation Square Melbourne. Taking a route through Cooma and passing near Jindabyne as we make our way down east of Melbourne before crossing back to Victoria's Capital.

A few days will be spent lounging with my brother before I jump on the train to Albury to see my folks. A short drive to Canberra, followed by a night's rest and I'll jump on the old motorbike and head to Brisbane to hang out with my cousin.

A couple of weeks after christmas and I'll head back down the coast to Wollongong where I can replenish my cash supplies by doing some stage work for a music festival in mid January. The short ride back to Canberra via the Princes highway will complete my monstrous journey. I'll do my best to keep the blog updated, but it will be hard on occasion. Everyone enjoy their summer! Peace out.

The Coober Pedy Kids Festival

In my last post I very briefly mentioned the Coober Pedy Kids festival as a highlight of the Shell Questacon Science Circus South Australia tour. It was so much fun that I decided to award it its own entry. Once a year the local council has a festival at the Coober Pedy Area school that is fun for the kids and informative for the parents. It teaches parents about good parenting practices as well as offering advice on things such as nutrition, safety and the role of the police in the community. The kids get to paint rocks, eat lollies, make masks, throw water bombs, and play with fire...trucks. Also availble is free tucker in BBQ form and massages from some of the local Thai community. We went to the festival because we thought it would be a great way to advertise our presence to Coober Pedy and to get a free feed. So on went our Questacon shirts and off we went to see what glories awaited us.

He we all are, caught on camera

Chris enjoys his free massage

Joel makes a mask of himself. Pick which one is the real Hallinan.

It wasn't long before we got to see what fire engines could really do.

Don't worry, everyone got a go. This was my turn to deftly wield the hose of joy.

Circus Freaks drying in the hot Sunday sun after a mad drenching.

Feeling it was a bit of a free ride, Chris and I decided to entertain the kids with our superb juggling skills. Here I go...

Did we enjoy the festival? Well just ask Renae and Joel!

Tour 4 - The Circus flies South

The final tour of the 2007 circus has been and gone. We visited South Australia, leaving a fingerprint on the hearts and souls of school students thoughout the Eyre Peninsula. The towns we visited this time included Port Pirie, Port Augusta, Coober Pedy, Roxby Downs, Port Lincoln Whyalla, Ceduna and Kadina. It wasn't a very exciting tour, often only performing six or seven times a week. However it was good to be around the whole crew for a final hoorah. Highlights included the Pier Hotel in Port Lincoln, where we stumbled into channel seven celebrites, the kids festival at Coober Pedy, stroking the Iron Knob and meeting a Giant Galah.

Unpacking our truck in Pt Pirie

My Collisions show ready to go

The BOC Liquid Nitrogen Show

My character, Eddy Evil, teaches the littlies about clouds and water vapor using some really,really, really cold liquid nitrogen.

Port Germaine and a wooden Jetty that is a whooping 1500 meters long

Big Decisions - where do we go next from Port Augusta. This week its the Stuart to Coober Pedy - next week we're back to take the Eyre Highway to Whyalla.

The Big Winch - Coober Pedy

The Colton Bakery small and tasty, also works off the honour system. Take your bread and drop you money into the box. Please take the correct change

Walking on water at Cowell with Chris

Arno Bay and the greeting dolphin - the new love in Jacqui's life

Joel caressing the Iron Knob

Joel playing his guitar with the Galah at Kimba

The most epic adventure of the 2007 science circus occured right here. The Pier Hotel in Port Lincoln.

Moving house? Just chuck in on a truck and take up every lane on the highway. This rigs are all throughout SA

Port Lincoln shows its colours - the view from our acomodation

Science Circus Last Dance

The end of the year is upon the Shell Questacon Science Circus. In a week we will embark on our last tour (tour 4), frolicking around South Australia visiting Port Augusta, Port Pirie, Coober Pedy, Karina, and Whyalla just to name a few. But before I leave there is much uni work to be done. Today I had to perform a show I develpoed from scratch (that was stressful) to my supervisors to make sure it is good enough to perform for the public. A 6000 word dossier is due on Wednesday that outlines a science exhibition I designed with two other circus freaks, followed by a formal presentation of the exhibition to the staff of Questacon on Friday. However, after Friday all my assessment is finished. Its clear sailing while on tour, no stress, just the fun of delivering science performances to the school kids of SA.

The Science Circus on Tour 1: Riverina

Young

Albury

AFL Keg Night

Last weekend was a big one. Thursday went until five, Friday was an awesome bar crawl, and Saturday, that was the Fenner's AFL team keg night. Only about eleven people made their slow way to the Moose, first years still feeling the effects of the Thursday night interhall ball, myself still shaky from the previous two nights. The beers tasted like nails - and 120 schooners is a lot for eleven people to get through. Luckily a few latecomers turned up to help us out and the afternoon started.

Here are some of the boys, while the beer was still a bit harsh.

Miles and my flatmate Paulie

Charlie and Hugh, both deep in thoughtTimmy, Paulie and Donnie - the nips are getting bigger.

Then Irish, an ex-ressie from Burgmann myself and Matt we chatted about interhall soccer and why I was still living on campus.

Next the girls unexpectedly joined us, they had found free cocktails at Academy.

Yee ha

And the drinks started tasting better

The night ended well, I ran into Bec and Megan. Aren't they beautiful!

Bec's ovaries started hurting so she got a ride home in a trolley.

On the way we found some old letters the Beaurepairs bin (B,U and A). They joined Bec in the trolley and finally found their way into the flat.

Oh, what a Night!