5 hour ACT Metrogaine

With many excuses (some good) from my friends about why they couldn't do the 5-hour Metrogaine with me, I decided to enter as a one-man team.  This was a luxury permitted by the organisers because the event was held within the confines of suburbia well-endowed with mobile phone coverage.

The controls were a mix of normal bush controls located in parks and less accessible areas, and questions such as 'What bird is NOT featured on the toilet block?' (which was my favourite control).  There was a 40 point penalty for incorrect answers to discourage guessing.  Nav was ridiculously easy, which was a refreshing change (see previous Rogaine experience) - this event was mainly about speed and route planning.

The weather was atrocious, it basically poured the entire day, except for a couple of hours at the start when it was only light drizzle.  As a result #61 was pretty much in the Molonglo River, despite the setter putting it back a number of metres from the water the day before.

I had to cut everything below #70 off, and couldn't stomach crossing Mt. Taylor for #60, due to time constraints.  My knee acted up about 2 hours in, which meant no more running and a 20 point time penalty for being 2 minutes late despite sprinting down Red Hill and tragically passing up #34, which was less than 100m from the road.  All up I estimate I covered about 27 km and scored respectably in the middle of the pack.

Despite the terrible weather I had a great time and enjoyed the course.

Surly Griffins vs. Black 'n' Blue Belles

We jumped on the newest goth-niche-sport bandwagon and booked tickets months in advance for 'madstax: beyond the hyperdome', the final bout of the Canberra Roller Derby league.  The event sold out, and the stadium was packed; if the level of public interest in the sport is maintained they are probably going to have to move to a bigger arena.  Especially if they make a sequel to the movie.

I was interested to see how the Canberra (presumably public servant-filled) teams would compare to the Baltimore Charm City Roller Girls we saw back in 2008.  The Black 'n' Blue Belles (pictured) certainly brought the freakiness I'd seen in Baltimore, so I decided to go for them.  The Surly Griffins looked fairly normal in comparison, but had the skills and ended up winning the bout. 

The Canberra skaters were generally slower than those we saw in Baltimore, but I'm sure they'll get faster as they gain confidence and experience.  Having said that, there were two stand-out really fast skaters (one from each team) who were often paired up as jammers and were loved by the crowd.

Some of the hits were massive, there was definitely no holding back.  The 'suicide seating' in Canberra was much less suicidal than in Baltimore where skaters landed in the crowd regularly.

Had a great time, would go again!

Thanks to D-eye on flickr for the great photos.

Steripen - clean water, but fairly temperamental

I've been using a Steripen Classic for all my water purification needs when out bush, but it has proven to be pretty unreliable.  Firstly it seems to be very particular about batteries: if you didn't charge your NiMh batteries within the past few days they probably won't work.  It is also very picky about how long you hold the button down for: 2 or 3 seconds seems to work best for me.  If you give the button a few goes and nothing happens, the FAQ says you should wait 15 seconds, which works most of the time:

Pressing the button too quickly may result in an unrecognized electronic signal. Wait 15 seconds to allow the SteriPEN to reset and then start again. Push the operating button slowly (hold for 1/2 second) and release. If selecting the 0.5 L dose, pause for a half a second before the second push of the button. If this doesn’t work, please check the batteries.

 I was also getting a problem where the UV light would switch off mid-dose and go to steady red, which means the Steripen thinks it isn't in water any more.  Ironically this happens when the water is too pure:

SteriPEN water sensors look for electrical conductivity to indicate the presence of water. In most cases water has enough trace mineral content to allow for a small amount of electrical current. On occasion though, very pure water may be encountered – most often in areas where water is from recent snow melt. Since very pure water is a poor electrical conductor, the sensors may only function marginally resulting in an incomplete UV dose. This can easily be corrected by adding a small pinch of salt, or a drop or two of some kind of electrolyte beverage to the water.

 Turns out the Canberra tap water I was testing with was pure enough to fool it - adding some salt made it work reliably.  Apparently newer models have been improved (and there is a new model with an optical water sensor):

Since late 2008, all SteriPEN models have had their water sensors enhanced by doubling the sensor electrode voltage, thereby increasing electrical current flow in water with low conductivity to allow proper function in snowmelt and even mineral-free distilled water

 Despite all these issues, I think it is still the best bet for purification (combined with some tablets for backup).

Where did all these new posts come from?

For those who are viewing this in an RSS reader and just saw a whole bunch of new posts, I thought I should explain :)  I have consolidated my US and Australian blogs into one blog which I'm calling 'sleeping with my eyes open' - something I have been known to do.

As a consequence, I have abandoned my plan to have a new blog for every continent - I had already optimistically created one for Antarctica :)

Hope you enjoy it.

Gig: Groovin The Moo

Silverchair, Vampire Weekend, Empire of the Sun, Grinspoon, Tegan & Sara, Spoon, Lisa Mitchell, British India, Miami Horror, Kisschasy and more come to Canberra. What the? How did this happen? Turns out there is benefit to being the bush capital, because it let us sneak into the 'regional' Groovin the Moo festival.

I was really impressed with the organisation of the festival. Two stages next door to each other meant for quick band changes, and minimised waiting around between sets. There were massive numbers of bar staff (no drink queues), massive numbers of catering staff (no food queues), and plenty of urinals (no wee queues, at least for guys). The only improvement I would suggest would be designated spray-painted walking lanes on the grass where people aren't allowed to sit to make moving around easier.

The lineup was the best we have seen in Canberra for years (sorry Stonefest). So who was good?

Highlights for me were Vampire Weekend (best of the festival), Tegan & Sara, Spoon, Miami Horror, and Kisschasy. Empire of the Sun were a big disappointment - they had awesome costumes, dancers, and graphics (see right, thanks to saimagery.1 on flickr for the photo), but didn't really connect with the crowd.  Even their big hits fell flat.

Similarly, Silverchair were pretty ordinary.  They played all their old songs terribly - adding boring self-indulgent solos into the middle of them.  They played good versions of songs off Young Modern, which rescued the set from disaster. Of course I would have liked them much better if Daniel Johns hadn't opened his mouth between songs, but that goes without saying.

By the time Silverchair took to the stage the temperature had dropped to about 5 degrees.  It was beautifully sunny during the day, but got really cold at night.  There were plenty of people wandering around in singlets, shorts, and thongs getting hypothermia (despite substantial beer coats).

Vampire Weekend stole the show with an awesome performance.  They had a giant version of the Contra album cover behind the stage with lights inside the girls' eyes.  Ha!  The chandeliers on the stage were also a cool touch.

Thanks Groovin the Moo, I'll come back next year.  Make sure you come to Canberra.

Vanuatu: paradise cove, cascades, a giant pig called Mama, the end

To give our wonderful hosts a break, Em and I spent a couple of fantastic nights at Paradise Cove.  We loved the bungalows (fair way up on the fancy scale cf. Friendly Bungalows), and the snorkelling off the jetty was awesome.  Their bar and restaurant was fantastic, food was great etc.  Highly recommend.

We spent an afternoon exploring the Mele Cascades outside of Port Vila.  The waterfalls were spectacular, and great for swimming, although a little chilly compared to the bath-temperature sea water (BTW Vanuatu doesn't have leeches or pretty much anything else nasty/dangerous).  There is a grassy lookout at the cascades that would be great for a picnic.  There was hardly anyone else around, which was great.  Apparently it is best to avoid the cascades on 'cruise ship days' unless you want to hang out with drunk Aussie bogans.

From the cascades we had a very entertaining bus trip back through one of the large village areas of Vila called 'freshwota', where we helped load and unload massive bunches of bananas and coconuts destined for the market.  A little girl came up to the bus window for a chat, gave Em a flower, and told us about the giant pig called 'Mama' that was wandering around behind her.  Good times.

We finished off our trip with a great dinner with our hosts at L'Houstalet, which is something of a Port Vila institution (the Constitution was signed there).  Thanks to our hosts we had the benefit of local knowledge and saw some amazing stuff in just 10 days.  Thanks guys!

Vanuatu: erupting volcanoes are scary, Mt. Yasur puts on a show

I didn't need much convincing to go to Vanuatu, but when Em told me you can go to the top of an active volcano, I was sold.  Ambrym's 2 day walk taking in the Benbow and Marum craters was out because the volcano was too active.  So we flew to the southern island of Tanna, to take in Mt. Yasur: one of the world's most active volcanoes.  Yasur has been erupting more or less continuously for the past 800 years and is known as the "Lighthouse of the Pacific".  Jeff Probst stood on the crater rim to introduce Survivor Vanuatu.

We boarded the Friendly Bungalows party ute at the White Grass airport and rocked out for the 1.5 hour 4WD trip towards the volcano.  A Kiwi couple staying at the bungalows told us how they thought they would have to sleep in a nearby village when rain made a hill in the road an impassable mudslide the week before we arrived. Friendly Bungalows was amazing - basic bungalows built on a remote beach, and Mary who runs the place lived up to the name by being one of the friendliest people we met in Vanuatu.  The food was...interesting.  Due to the remoteness of the village, you pretty much eat what they can grow.  I've never had choko quiche before...

After hanging out on the beach for a while we headed up to the volcano at 4pm, on an even worse road (I have it on good authority that it is much better than it used to be but you could still film an awesome 4WD commercial there).  We raced across an ash plain, forded a river, forked out some cash to the village that 'owns' the volcano, and walked to the crater rim.




We had these conversations with locals:

Greg: The volcano is on [an activity level of] two, right?
Guide:  Mmm....yes, almost three.  I think three next week.
Greg: When do you stop taking people?
Guide: Four
Greg: When was the last time it was 4?
Guide: 1996...the Japanese tourists died.

Em: It's safe right?
Mary: Mmm...mostly safe.  Is a little bit dangerous.

Turns out standing on the rim of an active volcano is really scary.  Ash poured out continuously, and molten lava bombs (tephra) exploded out, preceded by ominous rumbling and cracking.  I couldn't get that video of Mt. St. Helens erupting in 1980 out of my head.

The only saving grace was that the wind was really strong and blowing the ash and lava bombs away from us.  If the wind had changed I probably would have run away.  Because the activity level was at 3, we didn't go right up to the highest viewpoint where you can look down into the lava lakes.  I was plenty happy with our position because rocks were landing about 100m away.  Once the sun went down the eruptions looked amazing (and a lot like fireworks).  I found myself wishing for a big one....but not too big.

Update: As promised, Yasur went to Vanuatu Volcano Alert Level three on the 27th of May, described as:

Large eruption, danger in specific areas within parts of Volcanic Hazards Map Red and Yellow Zones.

Yasur volcano is currently undergoing moderate to large eruption with strong explosions ejecting volcanic bombs reaching the view points for visitors and the parking area with the significant ash fall in the villages nearby. High risk of volcanic projections remains in the red color Zone and threats of ash fall in parts of the yellow color zone that are exposed to trade winds (see hazards map).

Vanuatu: mie tung felth num, and it only took one shell

On ANZAC day we went with our friends to a small but moving dawn service held at the war memorial 'on top' in Port Vila.  The service was followed by a free breakfast, a snooze, and then some lazy beach time at Erakor island.

The next day we went to the 'Secret Garden', which had heaps of hilarious kustom stories like the one pictured, and a great array of information and wildlife.  The coconut crab was very cool (they only eat coconuts!!), although someone should tell the tourists that they are endangered, because they are a common menu item in restaurants.


Our lovely hosts took us to 'The Havannah' for lunch, which was amazing.  If you want super-luxury honeymooner bungalows on Efate, this is where you should be.  Apparently they turned down Cate Blanchett because of their no kids policy!

At night we went to a cool Kava bar called Hennington's, one of hundreds of kava bars in Port Vila.  You can recognise them by the lanterns they hang out on the street, there are usually no other signs, and often the 'bar' is not much more than a shack or someone's house.  Hennington's has a beautiful view over the lagoon.

Unlike in Fiji where Kava is drunk as part of a ceremony, in Vanuatu you drink your kava in one go, on your own and facing away from the other bar patrons.  After you have drunk your 'shell', you sit down at a table for some snacks and conversation with friends to 'listen to the Kava'.  Kava is a muscle relaxant, but the most obvious effect is numbness of the lips and tongue.  It tastes horrible and looks like muddy water.  NiVans will tell you they have the strongest Kava in the world.

Vanuatu: Bungee with vines instead of elastic

For our second action-packed day in Vanuatu we boarded a teeny-tiny charter plane for a tour to see the Pentecost land-divers (Naghol).  These crazy guys bungy jump from a wooden platform with vines tied to their legs every Saturday in April and May.  Traditionally the ceremony is partly for initiation into manhood and partly to ensure a good yam harvest.  The jumpers featured in the Survivor Vanuatu opening credits, although I note their dress was much more modest.


I estimated the platform to be about 20m high, with 11 jumping platforms.  The platforms break as the vine draws taught to help absorb some of the energy.  The idea is for the jumper's hair to brush the ground...No-one was injured, while we were there, but in 1974 Queen Elizabeth II visited the island outside of the usual jumping season and a jump was performed for her during which one of the jumpers died.

Funnily enough the guys jumping seemed to be much more worried about their penis sheath coming off during the jump than anything else.  This happened to one unfortunate guy, who got laughed at by the whole village and ran off into the jungle.  It was a great atmosphere, with the local villagers outnumbering the tourists.

There are better videos of land diving than the one I took above on YouTube.

On the way to Pentecost we flew over Ambrym, which was spectacularly active, putting out a huge cloud of ash (incidentally, given that air travel over Europe has been halted due to Eyjafjallajokull's ash cloud, we were all fairly worried that we just flew through it...).  In any case we got a great view of the volcano, and even saw the pool of lava in the crater.  That's right, I saw frickin lava.

After the land-diving we stopped at Lamen Bay on Epi for lunch and snorkelling.  They have some bungalows there that would be a fantastic place to stay.  The area we snorkelled on Lamen is known for a friendly dugong that hangs out in the area.  Sadly despite much looking around at the edge of the reef there was no dugong to be found.

It was a great day, it is amazing how much you can pack in with your own charter plane to whiz between islands!

Vanuatu: Lelepa, in the footsteps of hungry americans

Our first non-travel day in Vanuatu we spent on the Lelepa island tour.  After a bus ride from Port Vila we spent the first few minutes in the boat circling around a school of tuna with the lines out, hoping to catch some lunch.  Despite the tuna literally jumping out of the water in front of us, we didn't catch anything.

On the way to the island our guide (one of the Solomon brothers) regaled us with stories about Survivor Vanuatu, which was filmed on the mainland beach opposite Lelepa, with 'tribal councils' and challenges held on Lelepa.  The Australian Celebrity Survivor was filmed in the same location.  Both TV series' (especially the American one), were great for local business and especially our tour guide, who got a new bus as part of the deal.

We walked over the island and got an interesting tour of the bush tucker, medicine, and other uses for the surrounding jungle plants.  We snorkelled off the beach (not bad but there was better to come), and had a lazy lunch.

After lunch we visited an amazing cave that has great significance for Ni-Vanuatu as the place where Chief Roi Mata died (and is now world heritage listed), before being buried on Hat Island (with more than 25 members of his revenue, some of whom were buried alive!!).  It looked to me like a lava tube, and was pretty impressive, but too hard to take photos of since we only had candles for light.  The locals are scared of spirits in the cave - the first tour they made the tourists go in first to see if anything bad would happen :)  The way I understood it the custom was to take people to the cave to die, where they would be left on their own.  Nasty.

After the cave we went to a marine sanctuary on the east side of the island that had amazing snorkelling.  Our friends told us that it is considered the best snorkelling on Efate, and I believe it.  The coral was better than any I have seen on the outer Barrier Reef, and the fish were similarly amazing (we fed them the scraps from lunch).  Another couple on the tour said the snorkelling was much better than at Hideaway island, which is the best known snorkelling location in the area.

After snorkelling we visited the village on Lelepa, which was great.  We chatted with our guide about his village, and met his family.  We were the only motorised boat on the water, everyone else was a local in a dugout outrigger canoe.  Awesome.  I'd highly recommend the tour to anyone visiting Vanuatu.