Decision Made - Time To Move On

Posted by Ray

Posted on May 29, 2009

Over the last few weeks in Perth I have thought long and hard about what exactly to do for the rest of the year. There were a number of options on the table including packing the bags and going home or go travelling again. I'm glad I choose the later. Coming over to Australia the second time round didn't live up to my expectations. Getting a good engineering job over here at the moment is just not feasible unless you have serious experience under the belt. After three months applying and getting little response, morale and optimism fades, fast.

I would have left Perth earlier only for the marathon. Since January this year I have clocked up 600km and am in great shape. A number of niggly injuries have slowed up training a little, but after some physio and sound advice everything is back on track. The marathon is on the 5th of July. Before that there is a warm up half marathon on the 21st June, which will be a good indicator of what pace I can achieve in the big one. I'm under no illusions how hard the marathon is gonna be. It's the first of many so I'm taking this one easy. Somewhere in the 3hr30min - 3hr45min mark and I'll be happy.

Over the last two months there has been a number of small friendly competitions to clock up the most kilometres covered of the space of a month. Last month I took the honours against Jonny in round 1. This month saw the same result again in round 2. Batts and Meech were added into the mix, but never got going. This is definitely a great addition to training pushing one a little further than usual. I think we'll give it a break for a month or so to let the lads catch up a little distance and fitness wise. Maybe August after the lads are in pre season they'll accept the round 3 invitation.

Pretty much after the marathon I'll be leaving Perth. Going back to the east coast had crossed my mind, but it wouldn't make any sense to miss the west coast. It's definitely less touched and you meet fewer people who have taken the trip from Perth to Broome and then usually onto Kununarra on the NT border. The plan is to meet some new people or a group who are leaving Perth around the same time as me. Either they have transport or we rent. Splitting fuel and food cost is the done thing. I'm not too pushed on accommodation a tent will be fine. The main goal on the roadtrip is to see all the sites and spend little money. Eating noodles and carbonara for a couple of weeks is grand by me. The main places of interest are Shark Bay, Coral Bay, Karratha and Port Headland. There just a few to spring to mind. I'm sure theres many more to have a look and visit. Surprisingly there are allot of people who look for travel/ride share partners along the coast. Mostly German and French, which is a good thing. I've been around allot of English and Irish the last few months so any other nationalities would be a welcomed change.

Broome this time of year is really popular, especially with backpackers. Perth down the bottom of WA is coming into winter. In saying that its still a nice 22 degrees. Broome being around the same latitude as Cairns will be nice and warm for the next few months. The main season up there runs from April to September. Working when I get there will be top of the "to do" list. Even playing guitar is an option, I've been practising hard the last few weeks. Bar work would be first choice and I hope to have something setup before I get there. I'm pretty confident I'll get something, especially being peak season. Bring on Broome!

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