Tag Archives: Latvians in Australia

November 17th, leaving day

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Evija writes:
In a while, getting up at 7:30am is wonderful! However, from another point of view – strange. Anders and Rūdolfs most likely are in the airport already… I say goodbye to Emīls after the breakfast (we were both hosted by Inga and Mārtiņš Česlis family) – he will do some sightseeing around Brisbane center and then go to the airport as well. Guna, Gunta, Agnese are trying to get some beach experience, did it work out? – there were heavy downpours, lightnings, thunders in the morning.

Me – Evija, and Ilgonis have the last meeting with Latvians today – in Brisbane Latvia house. I tell very shortly about the activities of the University of Latvia fund, but I definitely want to share the video with the “thank you”s by the stipendiaries. The gathered Latvians are keen to listen to Ilgonis’ Solar Eclipse story, and to view photos and video – this is the first time it is shown in public. The Latvians of Brisbane are warm-hearted, sunny, open and joyful! It looks like the honorary consul Juris Meija has come as well. Also he had some stories about the life here.

In general I defined my feelings about Australians here in Brisbane today – calm, leisurely, harmonic and happy. I think that such are indeed the Latvians all around Australia.

After the nice meeting with Latvians, the host Andris Francis takes and follows me and Ilgonis to Brisbane planetarium – we watch a 3D film – ooh, my head is spinning! Impressive! After that a view from the highest hilltop to Brisbane’s big buildings and then we are ready to go to Inga and Mārtiņš Česlis house where there is a do for Mārtiņdiena (day of Mārtiņš) being organized. Many local Latvians (and not only Latvians) have turned up, we are around 30 people all together. It is interesting that most of the people are in their forties come with their families and a few children – hubbub, alacrity, laughter and conversations non stop!!! Zigrīda Francis’ big pretzel has baked well and was very tasty! The cheese salad made by another Latvian were gone from the table very quickly as well… Looks like I’m in Latvia in my mind already. From our group only me, Ilgonis, Guna, Gunta, Agnese have stayed here for couple of hours – the last 4 will go straight to airport after the party while I’ll be still waiting for the morning…

To get to know Australia at least a little bit – nature, Latvians, dare oneselve’s egoism in different situations in combination of 8 people – that’s fantastic and worth the experience!

Bye, till the next Total solar eclipse!!!

November 16th – finally in Brisbane

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Rūdolfs writes:
We wake up at 5:00 and prepare breakfast and collect the belongings at the same time because today need to give back the car and can’t be lingering. There are some 500-550km left to Brisbane. We sort the car properties to their places and go through to check.
My burned legs are feeling better today. Still need put medicine often, has to be done.

Along the way, a light came on, which says that the fuel stays for around 100km. Soon we stop at Caltex gas station, fill up and go on.
I continue to stay out of the sun in the car saloon to protect my legs. Otherwise, I can feel them too well in the sun.

Time to change drivers. The sun was shining on the driver’s side and I didn’t want to steer, but circumstances meant that I had to go until near Brisbane. I took a towel and put on top of my legs. With time running, I realized that it is not enough, because I still feel more pain. I decided that the next stop I will go back to the shadow in the back.

The scenery changes, the roads are wider and the traffic increase. The speed limit is higher, but we stick to 100km/h. A short time later I realize that the end could become tense. We decided to stop aside and discuss. Some people aren’t in good mood, but it can be understood. I’m staying in car and hardly engaging in discussions. How I understand they decided to throw me out first at the place where I’ll stay for this night. For the beginning the idea was to throw me out somewhere in the city with all the stuff, where I would be waiting for Anders. Then we would transfer any remaining items in the second car. So first car can be cleaned and given back. At the second car are all the others and luggage. Cleaning them somewhere and drop off. Finish talking and continuing journey.

I start collecting to backseat all my items which were scattered through the cabin, as most wires and all sorts of things were mine. The large backpack isn’t at a comfortable position to fill it and the small one need repacking. At the end I gathered everything in one spot.

Soon we arrive at the place where me and Anders will spend the night, but the owner isn’t at home yet. Need to wait at the front of the house. We are starting to take Anders’ and my belongings out of car and drop at corner of the house where I can hide in a shadow. Then the first car is empty and the other stuff moved to the second car as planned.We are also sharing things and bottles of beer, which I wasn’t allowed to drink and WC paper – it is a lot. That is because in each toilet there was paper even in the middle of the desert. For that we all were surprised.

When finished removing of all of my and Anders’ belongings it was quite a spectacular view to the pile. I recheck to make sure everything was taken out. They are debating what to do next while I hide in the shadow.
Saying goodbye to some people, because we didn’t know for sure if we would see each other in evening. Then everyone jumped in car and started driving, leaving me alone with a pile of stuff. I’m a little surprised that the pile is so big.

While waiting for house owner curious people looked to my direction and some came up to talk to me.
Soon the owner Dace arrived with her son. We greeted each other. I was welcomed and shown the house and our sleeping place, which is a whole big room. The house is nice and wide.
We talk and I began to carry our belongings from the outside to the room and the son also helps me, even though being shy. He need go to play tennis so I am left alone for a moment. We arranged that I contact Anders and give him instruction where he should be and that we will wait him at the train station.

Now it is time to go pickup Anders, but we arrived too early and decided to go to the tennis court where Dace’s son is playing tennis. Soon we went back and Anders was in front of us.
Soon we are back at home and also the rest of family members are at house. We introduce ourselves to each other. Parents, daughter and son and two of us. We started to talk about all sorts of topics, the tour, the solar eclipse and non-travel related matters.

So that is already evening and is time to meet the rest of the team at the city. But the family has invited us to dinner. Me and Anders decided to stay, but then we were missing the ferry trip, because they already are in the centre.
Tonight we have the honour of homemade pizza for dinner.

Tent! It is still wet, Anders says. We got a permission to put the tent in the yard and are jokingly saying that we are staying the night there. Outside is quite windy and Dace’s husband says that tonight / morning there will be a storm.

Pizza is getting ready and we guys are starting to drink beer and I allowed myself. Yes, 1:1 draw right now :D
Time goes nicely together. Approaching is the time when we would have to make it to the city to meet the rest of the team. They would already have completed the ferry ride. Anders receive a call, they will soon stop at the coast. I and Anders are discussing what to do next. The time that is left comes to end. That time left is no longer then just to go to the city to say goodbye and back. Again, rush. We came to the conclusion that tonight we won’t rush anywhere, but nicely spend it together with the family. Anders told Agnese our idea, sounded like she wasn’t really excited about our plan.

After the dinner we took a look at some pictures and tour, solar eclipse video. I was hoping that I had not burned camera matrix by holding towards the sun while watching the sun eclipse, but no, turns out to be much better and not so bad and not close to a white screen as it is a wide angle camera. Speeding the film of the eclipse and the file ended up, I think it shouldn’t have happened that the film just ended in middle. (Days later it appeared that when a certain amount is reached it is written in the next file with a different name, not as customary in a row. I found that out when I checked at home which file is the biggest.)

It’s already late and we are all starting to go to sleep. We still need to fill up our backpacks for tomorrow to go to the airport. Dace’s husband offered to take us on the way to work. Although a few hours earlier, but we are comfortable with it.
Evening is hearty and spent in a leisurely atmosphere.
Goodnight :)

November 12th: The amazing flora and fauna in Cairns

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Guna writes:
This is the first day in Cairns. We have spent night in our hosts’ – Andrejs and Zita, garden. After breakfast Andrejs offers us to show the mangrove forest, which is quite unique as one of the few wild mangrove groves in the world that is protected bio reserve. The groves are so out-of-this-world and nothing like even Gunta has ever seen. We take some… ok, many pictures of crabs and weird fish with big eyes able to move outside water – the mudskipper fish. The mangroves are a real jungle and a bit scary. If there was no broad walk to guide us through the grove, one would definitely get lost in there. Andrejs shows us the black-widow-style spider who eats it’s male partners after they have stopped being useful. Despite occasional warm drizzle interchanging with scorching sun filtering through the vividly green canopy we have a great time in this weird place.

Afterwards Andrejs takes us to the city library which is not so boring as it sounds. As we realize this as soon as we get out of our cars. The noise is constant and the source is the main object that we have come to see – the flying foxes or the big fruit bats have besieged the nearby trees around the library. Although it’s daytime and theoretically the bats are supposed to be sleeping, it is a very noisy sleeping. There are thousands of them. It sounds like they argue and chat and love each other at the same time making quite a noise. Now I understand where the legends of vampires and batmen come from, because they really look like batmen silhouetted against Cairn’s cloudy sky.

Interestingly the parking areas under these trees are free of charge not like the surrounding parking places. Still by parking your car under these trees you are is risking getting your car pretty dirty. We also have a quick step in the library to check out Zita’s fabulous picture of the bats – a present to the library.

Afterwards we take a walk down the beach which is lovely but the public pool just beside it looks much more inviting. The latter lets you feel like being in some kind of exotic beach with white sand and clear turquoise water. We observe some more local birds which Andrejs is very familiar with and of which, I believe, Anders understands much more.
The day goes by quickly but on our way home we just have a run in the local botanical gardens where I first see in real life a pond of lotus flowers. No wonder the flower has a fame, it s really beautiful.

We return home to grab some quick lunch before heading for the local zoo suggested by our hosts. We arrive at the zoo just in time to see the end of the crocodiles feeding show. In one house the local workers are in the process of making the koalas mate but I guess none of the two koala boys was going to get lucky today as the koala girl was screaming something fierce every time any one of them tried their moves on her. Agnese and I battle our inner battles and quickly lose to quite expensive koala holding sessions, but how can one come to Australia and not hold a koala – the incarnation of peace and all the cuddly things one can imagine! Our lovely koala girl Keyla is patient and bears with us the brief photo session.

Afterwards we catch the bird show which reminds me a bit of a circus of trained birds, still impressive and we get to see the really big blue butterflies just flying around in their home habitat.
It’s time to visit and feed some kangaroos and wallabies. This is the first time in Australia that we get actually close to these creatures as in the wild you just get to watch them gracefully hopping away.
The zoo is just about to close so a quick peek at the pelicans and we are off.

On our way home we stop by the Palm Grove beach. The water here near the shore is not the clear blue we would expect, rather it is muddy light brown and the waves just make the water more like Baltic Sea beach. Well, ok… the waves probably are bigger and the water is definitely warmer. Here you are only allowed to swim in the area enclosed by nets, and a lifeguard on duty. Only Ilgonis and Emīls are going for a swim, but I opt for walking down the beach and taking in the wonderful scenery.

Since we started our road trip this is the first evening in a long time that we eat our dinner actually before the sunset. It is wonderful, we are sitting outside in our hosts’ garden and enjoying ourselves for some time before some of us go and meet Mr Aleksandrs Gārša – an honorary consul for Latvia and a lawyer. Anders and Rūdolfs opt for staying at home.
Glass of wine with Mr Gārša and his wife is very cordial. We have some Tasmanian wine and cheese as well as Australian strawberries.
After coffee which comes from highlands just outside of Cairns and a group photo we head back home.

Turns out that during day the rain has got inside our tent, it is wet and really not a good place to sleep in. So Agnese and I take up on hosts’ generous offer to stay in Zita’s studio. And that’s when I find out that this day was supposed to be written about by me. So here I am sitting down on the floor of Zita’s studio and frantically trying to remember another day full of new impressions. Need for sleep is overwhelming so I will let others to take over from here to write about next day and new adventures that, no doubt, await us.

November 11th – we have got till Cairns

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Gunta writes:
It’s Lāčplēsis day today. We get up at 5:30 and leave at 7:30. The Sun rises after 5:30. The place where we camped was good. When we arrived last night, there was a warning that there might be crocodiles, but it’s not like that as we are high above river banks. There are 2 big bridges over the river – one railway and the other – auto. There are many vehicles and trailers in the campsite. We meet a man from Switzerland who has been traveling for a long time – since 2007. He says he has caught lots of fish. Ilgonis wants a fish, but there’s nothing to give in return.

We are going to Cairns, beautiful hilly road, cattle is grazing on road sides – cows, calves, horses. It has been burning again on roadsides. We conclude that everything burns down, but the termites survive. The surroundings are changing. The road becomes lonelier, many warnings about road flooding. Sometimes there are empty cars left on roadsides. We are wondering whether those are the ones broken down in flood or left after crashes as a warning for people to not go so fast.

Near Townsville oleanders, rhododendrons and African tulip trees are blooming. We want to get to the sea and are heading towards Toomulla beach [Agnese’s comment – because that’s the closest to the highway]. We park almost on the shore. Short walks. The Saltwater Creek is flowing into the ocean here, it should be fine to go into the water of the creek. It is not fine to go into the ocean water as if the water is calm, there might be the small box jellyfish here, which are deadly. We can see beautiful shells that have been washed out of the sea and broken corals.

There are nice, green fields. We have several ideas, but Anders says – sugar canes. On one side of the road – hills, on the other – beautiful ranch houses with palms.

A stop and a walk at Tyto Wetlands park. The ground is cracked. Emīls realizes that there’s almost no shadow. On palm trunks there are ferns growing, there are tropical plants all around. Trees with interesting fruits, similar to rambutans from Indonesia. We are listening to bird songs. It’s hot, sweating, temperature surely around 35 degrees. In the lake there are ducks swimming and some white waterbirds. Anders and Rūdolfs are seriously observing everything. There are ants nests among bush branches and canes. Then something is rustling in the grass. We are sending Rūdolfs ahead. It seems that someone flees. On our way back – photo with a small wallaby who is fearfully hiding under bushes. Then he gathers courage and makes a mighty jump over the road.

We are going further. The surroundings have changed – rain forests, cultivated fields, plantations with bananas. Local vegetables and fruits are being sold. We buy 2 watermelons – and eat one at once. Very tasty, sweet. Then comes Cairns – green, blooming. We find Andrejs’ house and park in the yard. There are diverse plants here – a cocos palm with coconuts, pineapples, pomelo, flowers, blooming bushes. There are poisonous toads living in the garden.

Then dinner with seafood, rice and wine. Conversations going on, we are checking Andrejs’ photo albums, listening about local birds, plants. Drinking tea with eucalyptus leaves which have been gathered in Zita’s care in the garden. Late we are going to sleep.

November 4th: around Coober Pedy

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Gunta writes:
Waking up at 5:30, the morning is calm. Sunrise at 6:22, the guys are preparing breakfast. The porridge made by Ilgonis is tasty, just one pot gets burnt a bit. Two crows are chatting to each other, looks great, maybe they are discussing pans for the day. Breakfast. Leaving at 7:50, destination for today – Agnes’ creek. The first stop – at a stand with information about railway building from Port Augusta to Alice Springs. Along the road desert plants, the scenery changes from dried grasslands to bush in red soil. Salt bushes and eucalypti are growing here. On the sides of road it looks like there are thrown out some kind of yellow balls in piles. Later we find out that the yellow fruits are camel melons which are poisonous for humans.

We arrive at Coober Pedy. It is very hot. We visit the underground Orthodox church. Then entrance is for donations and some of us are paying. Guna and I put a candle for the living souls. Then we go further to see the Big Winch. The one displayed is a replica because the old one was twisted and broken during a storm. The houses are mostly underground. Next we go to the Old Timer’s Mine opal museum and shop. The exposition is big. The temperature in shade is 39 degrees Celsius. The local shopkeeper says such temperature is usually in February (i.e. in spring). The normal temperature in November is around 20 degrees Celsius or a little bit more.
There are no people outside, only us. Some of us buy some opal jewelry. We eat our lunch in shade. The wind in sun almost burns our feet. We watch the demonstration of rock blower machine and have the opportunity to try it out ourselves – the force is so strong that one can see its skin rippling.
Coober Pedy is small town or a big village with many houses. Everything is sandy and dusty.

Afterwards with one car because of dirt road 4km long we are going to Crocodile Harry. The dwelling looks like a cave at the basis of the mountain, the entrance is at the ground level. There are many rooms – living room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and a small library. Women’s underwear hangs everywhere. The walls are covered with greetings from all over the world, also from Latvia. We find a photo album with a photo taken in Dundaga [town in Latvia] and the little Harry on a donkey in Culture and Leisure park. Next to it is a photo of Harry – all grown up in Coober Pedy – big bearded, long haired man. It is a strange feeling and it evokes thoughts about time and Harry’s destiny.

We are going to the camp site. There’s lightning all the time near horizon. The lightning strikes straight into the ground. Emīls is waiting rain for it to wash the car. Some raindrops occasionally fall on the windshield. There are no kangaroos on the road, not counting the dead ones.

We stop at Marla and some run to the sprinkler to freshen up. We meet travelers from England who are renting campers from the same Spaceship company. So we exchange DVDs, suggestions and impressions with them.
Later on the way we encounter strong wind but not so strong rain, dry spinifex (desert grass) balls are rolling over the road.
A radio conversation occurs between the two cars – [Optimus Prime (the girls’ car)]: how many kilometers are left? [Hawk (the guys’ car)]: we don’t know. [OP]: But you have GPS! [H]: just a minute, we’ll turn it on.

At camp site we prepare dinner – a kangaroo steak and potatoes, plus salads. Very tasty. There’s a bush fire in the distance. Our scouts come back with some good and bad news. The good news is that the fire is not very big, and the bad news is that it is only approximately 2 km away. So we decide to go to the next camp site 35km further. There is also an emergency phone. On the way we find that the bushfire is bigger and also further – around 15 km away.

We stay in our new campsite.There’s storm during night. Rain comes down in huge drops but the average rainfall is small. The car sways and it feels like it will be lifted up by the strong winds. We think how the ones sleeping in tents are feeling and whether they also won’t be blown away into desert.

Greetings to all reading my entry!

Agnese: I should add here that on this day we noticed that the conditioner of the OP car is not working properly. In Coober Pedy we sent an e-mail to Spaceships office and asked to organize us someone to see to that in Alice Springs besides the failed cigarette lighter/electricity pug with a hope that we’ll still be alive by then. Occasionally we are switching the cars so that the others get the coolness of Hawk as well. But I don’t switch – I still have the cough that I got in London, and I don’t want to get cold.

November 3rd – No expectations and be open!

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Evija writes:
The stay at home of Adelaide’s Latvians, Jānis Priedkalns and Ilga [Agnese adds – the others were staying in other places] is nice, especially the breakfast – Latvian style pancakes with Pure [a town in Latvia] jam! Wow! :) I cannot find the koala in the eucalyptus tree of their house garden, but the green car – fantastic!

The meeting with honorary consul, the leader of Adelaide’s Latvians and others is cozy, lovey, people are interested. Latvians here are very friendly. In the Latvian museum it seems to me that the collection of folk costumes are even bigger than in Latvia Etnographic Open-air museum.

Woomera rocket base is not too interesting for me, but Ilgonis [Agnese adds – definitely also Agnese and Emīls] is excited! Tonight we are staying in rest area 225km before Coober Pedy, tomorrow full speed forward! After dinner Emīls shows and tells about stars – he is very good at it. Sky is full of stars and the Milky Way so beautiful! And them the sleep gradually takes me over and I curl up in the car.

November 2nd – catching up

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Rūdolfs writes:
I wake up with my alarm which rings at 5:15. I put many alarms and I also know that not all people get up in same time. Morning is very cold around 5C. In sleeping bag was quite cold even with clothes on and also it’s not suited for low temperature. Everyone slowly gets out of bed and some of us start making breakfast. Some of us are going to take morning photo view around site. It’s already bright but still can’t see sunrise because it’s happening behind small hill. I’m making a film of fog above water and around it and also our camp place.

Now it’s breakfast time and we start to eat. While we are eating the Sun is starting to get above hill. Ilgonis and Emīls was already there before it’s risen above hill. Meanwhile some of us are starting to make sandwiches for lunch.

Soon we start packing the car and washing dishes to get ready to start the journey. Today it was planned to drive around 685km but yesterday we didn’t reach our goal because it was planned 723km, but we did only around 320km. So today we need to drive around 1085km. Now it’s Ilgonis turn to drive. I guess it is the first time for him to drive the other side of road and automatic gear. I explain him.

We start to drive and follow girls car. I start setting up navigation system and looking where we are. Our boy’s navigation system from Ilgonis Garmin nuvi GPS can’t search by name. My Marble software doesn’t want to recognize my Magellan anymore but in map I can follow route where we need to be and I also have Route66 Chicago GPS but there isn’t this road inside it, and last one is HTC Desire Android software Navfree which also uses OSM map but for address search it requires internet. It will be a long way to drive. We talk and listen to music. Time by time we change driver to let the previous driver rest.

Australia’s nature is different. In some area there are only small bush and grass around knee level and in some areas like poor forest and it looks not higher than 6-8m.
In one rest area Agnes asks for hot water and I suggest her to take my kettle to boil how many they need and we start drive forward. At next rest area Agnese told me that kettle knocked out the DC of their car. Nature changes time by time and we see a lot of dead kangaroos at side of road. I fall asleep at some point.

We are approaching Adelaide. Ilgonis drove into a rest area and asked to replace him. I suggest that I can drive and Anders take care about navigation. At the same time girls’ car didn’t stop but drive forward, because we are quite late already. I know that they don’t drive more than 100km/h even you can drive up to 110km/h because at one rest area I asked Agnese why they don’t drive more than 100km/h and she told me that is because at 110km/h rpm are 2,9 which one eat more fuel instead of 100km/h at 2,5 rpm but our car at 110km/h take 2,7 rpm. I didn’t see big difference because you also gain more km. So I speed up to 110km/h to catch girls car.

We are in Adelaide and Anders starts to navigate with google map and told me directions. Soon we are in road construction site where they build bridges and we need alternative route. Road is small and tricky but we manage get through it. We are finally approaching destination. On the last corner girls are ringing us and asking where we are and we already see girls.

We parked inside Latvian house “Daugavas Vanags” parking area and there are already people who are waiting for us to show house and give us late snack Latvian pie. Latvian house is very patriotic. Two of them suggest that they can give sleeping place for 4 people. We decided that girls are going there and we stay in Latvian house in the largest room. Ilgonis, Anders and I chose stay in the house but Emīls chose to sleep in car, to get longer sleep because in morning there is the presentation in same room where we sleep.

Some of us tested projector but there is a little problem. We decide to use an alternative, because they had setup a new system not long time ago but it didn’t want to recognize my PC and I haven’t got experience whit this system.
Some of us went to shower but I decide to do it tomorrow because I’m too sleepy for that.
Good night!

October 30th – Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life!

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Evija writes:
The stay of our group at homes of Latvians in Sydney is successful and hearty. Each of us gets to know something new and also controversial.

For the breakfast – the Royal Botanical Garden of Sydney with guide and first postcards with Australia animals. The botanical garden of University of Latvia is on the right path, looks like I’ll need to give them a praise later on.

The territory of the opera house is huge, we also find a place to dine there [Agnese: I wouldn’t say it was the best choice, however]. I find the most akin part of Sydney for myself – the Rocks, which is the oldest part of the city; let’s leave the skyscrapers for others.

The long prepared meeting in Strathfield with the Latvians of Sydney has finally come. There are surprisingly many people in the meeting, I am very happy to meet Goga again and get to know other countrymen. Thanks to the Latvia group for participating!

October 29th – arriving

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Main part of our group (6 out of 8 people ) successfully arrived in Sydney today. Well, not completely, Evija’s luggage is missing. Promised to deliver later. We met with our hosts (we stay with local Latvian families). Nice and warm welcome!

I sniff the air. It’s quite the same as in my country. Only later I notice that blossomed trees are everywhere. Violet jacaranda is especially beautiful. All city today is dressed in violet.

In the afternoon our whole group meets for the first time. First looks, greetings and impressions. We will stay together for three weeks while driving 8000 kilometers around Australia. Lets see how we shall adapt to each other.

Sydney is gorgeous and Agnes is an excellent guide of our city walk. We visit Town Hall, Anzac memorial, ibisses in the park, St. Mary’s cathedral, Old Mint, Barracks and NSW state library.
Business part of the city around Martin place looks like a jungle. Narrow gorges between huge buildings are full of trees and crowds. Surprisingly there are no kangaroos on streets :-). Queen Victoria building with its remarkable clock is like an isle of quietness.

We continue with Darling harbour, seagulls and more ibisses. I especially like skyscrapers that shape silhouette of the city. Surprisingly, famous Opera is not visible from every corner :-)! Our tour finishes at Chinatown where most of us order different Chinese soups. I and Anders order soup with small chilli amount and even then it is very hot. Rūdolfs order medium chilli. Poor guy!