After my last breakfast on board, Gihan showed me the food storage (where my chocolate was stored). Partly it was now empty, because they would get new food in Melbourne, parts were still full, because they always buy more when it is cheap, like many people at home, too.
Then morning was a mixture of packing, preparing, video editing and going on deck to take photos and make screenshots of the location. By that, I saw that mapsme had no Australian map except Sydney and I can definitely remember that I had downloaded it in Vienna and updated on the way one or two times.
There was the same slightly excited atmosphere on the ship like last time on the Colomba before berthing and for me, of course, too.
The pilot came on board a few miles before we entered Port Phillip bay and one hour later the ship was “long-side on port” as the Captain said.
The immigration officers came, checking all passports of the crew, but later only 8 of them left the ship for those 8 hours they had before leaving again (to Sydney btw.)
The officers asked some questions and wrote down notes and then one checked my bags and the special agent for bio-threats (I have forgotten the official name) looked at my ants in the little jar. Smilingly, he confiscated them, because they could bring some illnesses (although they are vacuum-tight packed there since one and a half year) and then wanted to see my tent and my shoes and when everything was ok, we went down to my bike. I was proud of my clean bike, two times professionally washed in Taichung and again by me on the ship but the special agent for bio-threats found a potential biological threat for Australia on the down-side of my mudguard. Of course, I had tried my best to clean that, with a very strong water jet from the hose, but he was not satisfied. Together we went to the kitchen to get a sponge, bucket, soapy water, gloves, tissues and a big plastic bag where all that should get in afterwards. I found a tool for scratching, ruined the sponge and worked hard. Meanwhile the officer went away and came back with an alcoholic spray for some spots where he still found threatening mud.
And then I could leave.
In front of the ship, they had planted a bus-stop and when I pressed the button, a car driver came, driving me 300m to the immigration office or exit check or so. I had to carry my stuff a few steps up, was identified, brought my stuff out on the other side of that office and was in Melbourne. And now happened what I had feared since I had started in Vienna (see day 001):
Mr.G had no plan and no map. Luckily the sun was shining so I had an idea which direction I eventually should go and followed some cars until I was in a more urban area. And then I “met” a purple line on the screen. This line was coming from somewhere and leading to the port, but I could guess that this somewhere was Eugene’s house. There were not too many other options left, because I had made a mistake that I had avoided all the time so far and had not written down address and telephone number on paper. So far, I didn’t need these notes on paper, but you know, things that can happen, tend to happen once. So, I was there without a working telephone, no internet connection, no offline map, no working GPS and no written information. Only me and a purple line on that screen showing in the opposite direction in a white Nirvana. And, of course, Mr.G was not dead and protested against the wrong direction in general, some detours in particular and about being blindfolded additionally. He showed me desperate messages every 5 seconds, so that the purple line and the blue arrow (that’s me) were invisible and I had to swipe that away which was annoying in combination with traffic on the wrong side, being embarrassed about my silly mistake after 240 days of travelling and general nervousness in a new situation (even when all systems work well, I am never sure if the would stop, or the address is wrong or whatever can happen).
After 10km struggling to follow that line or find back to it, when I could not go where it was drawn (Once there was a ~ 400m line of houses and no way to pass to match with the line, I only could promise to come back to it later. And even when I saw that there was no other street than that that I used it was not “online”, but shifted in parallels), I stopped, first for an ATM and the for a 7/eleven shop to buy a SIM card. Of course, I didn’t get that one, that I wanted after some internet research, but I didn’t want to be picky, because otherwise for sure I would not find any other shop. I even could activate the card and was told that within 15min or more the phone should work.
SIM-card may be important, but not the only thing! m&m can fuel my ride to M&M 😉
So, I cycled on and the purple line came to an end (or beginning). Luckily, I remembered the situation from the route planning and could find the house. In this moment Eugene opened the house and things were good.
Eugene was very welcoming, knowledgeable and helpful. For instance, I didn’t know that adapter that I had bought for Taiwan could be adapted for Australia by turning the pins. And he could help me with an Australian map for Mr.G!
Keira, his 17 months old daughter was silent but not frightened, she is used to guests because Eugene and Karina host a lot (CS and WS).
When I connected with Wi-Fi, I got 90 emails, enough messages on WhatsApp and Facebook, comments in Facebook, I had to clarify the schedule with the hosts along the way to Sydney, to complete my diary and upload blog entries. I started with that, sometimes doing the urgent and/or important things, then switching to something else, but still I had some progress. Later in the evening, 3 other couchsurfers came to share the room with me and until late at night now it was a change between working and talking. They had been in Tasmania, a Canadian/Belgian couple, staying longer and a Swiss, departing the next morning. The couple later also wants to go to Taiwan, so we talked a bit about that, but they also had some work to do (calculating their shared costs etc). Karina came late from work; her son Constantin was in his room most of the time and Eugene and Keira came and went from time to time.
After midnight it became silent in the house.