February 2006

This morning, we checked out of the YHA and headed for Uluru/Ayers Rock. Over the last couple of weeks, I had been checking weather reports for the red centre, and to be honest I was a little wary of the temperatures I was seeing: up to 45 degrees. However the temperature was a more manageable 29 degrees, according to the car's external temperature gauge. The reason for this is that it was raining! I don't mind the odd drop of rain, but throwing it down in the middle of the desert is just taking the mickey. We have the Sounds of Silence tour booked for tomorrow night and I will be mightily miffed if it is raining or cloudy as it is our most expensive outlay so far, and its highlight is gazing at the clear starry skies. Here's hoping...
With rain comes another problem: flies and more annoyingly, millions upon millions of the persistent little **#*#@! There were enough to motivate us to go out and buy nets to keep them off us. All our photos from the red centre, now have us wearing these daft look things. The rest of the day was spent driving from Alice to Uluru, stopping off occasionally at tourist attractions and filling up ($1.60 per litre, ouch!)
The major attraction that we stopped at was a meteorite crater about 2 hours out of Alice and on 15kms of unsealed road (give the 4WD a workout . Due to the aforementioned flies, we only spent about half an hour there, but it was enough to be impressed not only by the crater but the vastness of the surrounding desert. It is really hard to comprehend for someone living in suburbia but all I can say is that I wouldn't want to breakdown out there.
Having arrived at Ayers Rock, we checked ourselves in and had just enough time to see the sun set over the Olgas, very nice and kind of reminiscent of Santorini.

Today we had a few days to kill before we got on the Ghan, so we decided to check out Casanova at the movies (actually, Heather decided it would be Casanova - I wanted to see Jarhead). I guess the movie was ok if you like romantic comedies, about 4 out of 10.
Eventually we boarded the Ghan. The train itself was an experience; during our China holiday in 2004, we experienced soft sleeper class, I guess we have now experienced hard seating (look in blog archives for a reminder).Unfortunately, we had to experience it for 20 hours. The staff however were friendly and provided a decent service. We did have someone in front of us that snored loudly for 18 of the 20 hours, making it impossible for us to sleep. All in all, the Ghan in cattle class is not something I would want to repeat. Hmm, we've got our trip from Alice to Darwin next week...
Alice Springs itself isn't too bad. We went to a pub called Bojangles, which must have been targetting tourists because the beers were $5 each and the food was approaching Sydney prices, so we had just the one there and moved on to an English theme pub. Maybe they don't get many English backpackers in Alice Springs, because out of the dozen beers, 10 were Australian, one was Harp (Irish) and the other was Newcastle Brown (which I'll let them have). There was I hoping for Old Speckled Hen
Finally, we decided to pull up stumps and head back to the YHA where we were staying, stopping off en-route for a cheap pizza. Time to sleep...

Actually, I am not too bad really.
Today, we went on our wine tasting tour. You know how whenever you go on one of these, there's always one couple that seems to get drunker than anyone else, always keeps the bus waiting while they work through the wine list and plays childish games loudly with each other? Well, that was us
After the tour, we found out that there was a free concert happening in a nearby park. Always keen to take anything offered for free, we headed to it. There was only the one act, but fortunately it was a group I liked (the Rogue Traders). Heather hadn't heard of them but seemed to enjoy it nonetheless. Quiet sort of a day really.

Time to wrap up the last few days methinks.
In my last post, we had arrived at Halls Gap and I was raving about it. We ended up staying there for 2 days, as it was really charming.
What sold it for me was as we were walking down the street on our first day there, a mother and baby kangaroo stopped on the oppposite side of the street, paused a few seconds to make sure that no cars were coming and then hopped across the road. I have spent many a happy day winding up family members saying that kangaroos roamed the streets of Sydney, but to see it actually happen (albeit in a small town) was a real Aussie experience. Definitely something to remember.
The rest of our time in Halls Gap was spent doing walks in those parts of the national park that were still open. It was on the way back from one of these walks that we came across a flock of a dozen or so wild emus. Fortunately we were in the car, so if they had given chase (as they are prone to do) we could have out run them.
After Halls Gap, we drove non-stop to South Australia and specifically to a town on the border called appropriately Bordertown.
The drive had taken 3 hours or so, so I was looking forward to a nice half day of wandering around the local attractions. We went to the information centre, and posed the question to the bloke there: what are the local attractions? The response was not exactly what I was looking for :ie "a couple of hours drive from here, there is the Murray River where you can rent a cabin."
So it was back to the car for another trek, fortunately cruise control took away some of the effort. In fairness to Bordertown, they did have one attraction: white kangaroos, so we went and checked them out. In 35 degree heat and being kept in a paddock, the poor things were not really in the most lively of spirits. I'm not convinced about the need to visit Bordertown again...
We rented a Swiss-style A-frame cabin down by the river and spent the night there. Other than swim in it (after Heather had convonced me that there would be no saltwater crocodiles in a freshwater river), we didn't do much other than play backgammon (still learning, and playing badly) and drink a decent amount of alcohol.
The following day (Friday 17th), we drove the remainder of the distance to Adelaide, stopping off at a town called Hahndorff (as you can guess, German settlers started it) and the local beach. I was hoping for a backpacker mecca like Bondi but it was much more family oriented (unfortunately). Last activities of the day were to check in to the YHA and return our very dirty hire car. Tomorrow we have a wine tasting tour of the Barossa Valley. As I won't be driving, I expect Sunday to be spent hungover. As long as we don't miss our train ride at 5pm...

Just a quick update today as I have not been doing any daily entries on my Pocket PC and I only have 7 minutes left!
The last week was spent flying from Hobart to Melbourne, and overnighting in a hostel there. We did catch up with Kristina, whom is a Sydney friend who moved to Melbourne about a year ago. It was good to see her after such a long time.
We then drove over the space of three days along the Great Ocean Road, stopping off for 2 days of it in the Apollo Bay. It was from here that we did a spot of sea fishing, and contrary to normal experiences, actually caught some fish. Between us, we caught 5 Flat heads, a couple of baby sharks and a Barracuda. It was actually me the Barracuda, and it put a decent struggle. Almost felt obliged to let him go... (almost).
After Apollo Bay we overnighted in Port Cambell, having stopped off enroute to view the 12 Apostles. Awesome to look at, and a photo or my words does not do them justice.
Finally, we drove to the Grampians and are currently staying in the YHA here. (I like YHA internet kiosks . Unfortunately, they have just experienced a horrendous bush fire, but fortunately where we are staying (Halls Gap) got away pretty unscathed.
Got to go!!!