Australia
Our flight from Fiji to Australia highlights the fact that Conor should never be allowed to travel on his own. As soon as he gets into travel mode he just falls asleep. In Nadi airport I have to wake him to get on the plane, otherwise he'd still be there today. Again I have to wake him to get him on and off the plane during our stopover in Auckland. Where would he be without me to look after him? This is all despite the fact that I'm the one feeling a little ill, and I actually have to "run" to the bathroom when we stop in Auckland!
We're flying into Brisbane, about halfway up the east coast. The plan is to make our way up the coast to Cairns, fly across to Darwin in the north, make our way down the middle via Alice Springs and Ayers Rock to Adelaide, then to Melbourne and finally back to the east coast to Sydney. We've got 6 weeks to do it.
Brisbane
We arrive in Brisbane early morning on Thursday 18th October and check into our hostel in the West End. We go for a walk into town, but I'm beginning to feel ill again and just head back for a sleep. My fears are confirmed and I end up having to go to the doctor. I take a couple of days to recover, resulting in us spending 4 days in Brisbane. To be honest, I don't get a very good impression of the city. In particular, the city centre is very small - just a couple of short shopping streets - which is strange for a city of 1.5m. There's a nice square where the town hall is, but George Square it isn't, nor is it Copley. The area we're staying in is quite nice - a rather trendy cafe/restaurant scene, but not really any proper pubs.
On Sunday afternoon we head out to the Lone Pines Koala Sanctuary. As well as koalas, there are kangaroos which you can mix with and feed, and a few other native Australian animals. The koalas are my favourite though. Did you know that they spend 19 hours a day sleeping? Reminds me of Conor on a plane to be honest!
Fraser Island
On Monday, we take the bus to Hervey Bay (pronounced Harvey). It's a 6 hour journey, and my first experience of Greyhound/McCaffertys. I'm impressed - it seems much more comfortable than bus travel in the US, and certainly less stressful, as your booking guarantees you a particular seat on a particular bus - no need to use your elbows!
Hervey Bay is the departure point for Fraser Island. We've booked into a hostel called Smuggler's Rest, and we'll do our trip to Fraser with them. All the hostels in Hervey Bay do a similar sort of deal - they provide you with a 4WD vehicle, tents, a few travel companions and a rough itinerary, and send you off to drive the island yourself for 3 days. Our hostel is slightly different from the others in that the food is provided as part of the package; most of the other hostels send you off to the supermarket the day before you go. For us, all we have to do is buy some beer, and even then Smugglers pick it up from the bottle shop for us.
We have a couple of briefings before we go; one on the dos and donts of the island, and one on how to drive our Landrover Defender. This gives us a chance to meet our friends for the next 3 days - Darren and Katie (an English couple around my age), Bart (Belgium, 39), Eva and Sandie (Germany, 24ish).
We're up around 6am on Tuesday for our 9am ferry to the island. The island is a world heritage site, and is the world's largest sand island. There are no proper roads, just sand tracks inland and then the eastern beach. The main wildlife on the island is the dingo, and there was a scare earlier this year when a young boy was killed by a couple of dingos.
Our aim for today is to see the inland lakes. The inland driving is on sand tracks through forest and is very slow 10/15mph? Our first stop is at Central Station to collect some firewood (we're allowed one armful per day, and make use of Conor's arm to get a decent amount!), and a walk through the forest to the Basin Lake. The next leg of driving is to Lake Mackenzie, and I get my first shot behind the wheel. We get there in one piece - what a result! Lake Mackenzie is nice - very clear water and lovely white sand. I even have a quick dip here, which is unusual given my dislike of swimming.
Sandie takes over for the next drive to Lake Birrabean and we have to deal with the most traumatic moments of the trip so far. She's never driven a car while sitting on the right hand side before, and probably because of that she's constantly drifting to the left. At some points on the road there's a steep drop-off, and as luck would have it, it's at one of these that she drifts that little bit too far to the left, and we nearly go off the road. Our front left wheel is hanging over the edge, and although there are trees which would probably have caught us, it's still possible we could have toppled right over if she hadn't stopped when she did. We get going again eventually, and it seems to take ages until we get to Lake Birrabean, thankfully safe and sound.
Lake Birrabean is similar to Lake Mackenzie, although I announce that it�s not as pretty because of all the "stuff" growing on the beach. Darren laughs at me and says "Do you mean the natural vegetation?", and I joke back that they should pull it out so that the place looks nicer. From then on, I'm often asked what I think of the places we stop at and I reply with things like "They should cut down those trees so we get a better view" or "They should put in a big tarmac car park to make it easier to unload the gear".
For the last bit of driving of the afternoon we get Sandie out of the driver's seat and Bart takes over. We all feel a lot safer now, even though he's used to driving on the wrong side of the road too. We drive down to the eastern beach via a stop at Lake Boomanjin, and a mile or so up the beach we stop and pick a place to camp for the night. We haven't seen any people since the lakes, and we won't see anyone again until next morning, so it certainly feels as if we're camping in the middle of nowhere.
With a bit of difficulty we get the campfire going. One of the rules is that you're only supposed to use the wood provided and not pick up even dead branches, because they are still part of the eco-system of the island. However, we're forced to cheat as we only have huge blocks of wood and not smaller bits to get it going. The alternative was to go hungry, as our gas stove was still not boiling the water for our pasta after about 45 minutes! After dinner of pasta bolognese we settle down round the campfire for a chat and a few beers. We get on with Darren and Katie really well, and Bart as well. The girls are a different story though; they're happier talking to each other in German and even when you do get them involved in a conversation, you can be sure they'll lapse back to talking to each other soon enough.
On day 2 we're up pretty early again, as our aim is to drive north on the beach to Indian Head before the tide comes in. You can drive a lot faster on the beach than inland; the speed limit is about 50mph, although Darren and Bart probably don't get over 40 as they take the first two shifts. Disaster strikes as Sandie manages to acquire the keys again. Conor and I are in the back which is the worst place to be when things get bumpy, and bumpy it gets as she drives through the washouts (streams flowing across the beach into the sea which cut into the beach) at the same speed she was driving before. She also drifts to the left again resulting in us going too fast through the soft sand. At one stage I was sure she was going to topple us. Most of us are keeping our mouths shut, leaving Bart to shout things like "Slow down Sandy", and "Both hands on the wheel Sandie, BOTH HANDS!"
We make it all the way up to Indian Head in 2 or 3 hours with just the one main stop to see the Maheno shipwreck, a Clyde-built ship which ran aground here years ago, and has sat here ever since, gradually sinking into the sand.
At the Indian Head campground, we're delighted with the performance of our van. Where vans from other hostels are getting stuck in the soft sand, Darren drives ours straight in with no problem at all. We have a good laugh at the others having to get out and push, and even let air out of their tyres.
We climb up to the top of Indian Head, a rocky promontory, and get great views up and down the beach, as well as over the island. This is probably my favourite part of the 3 days.
The main annoying point of the island, which we didn't notice yesterday, is the number of flies. They land on your head, face and back, and even on your lip. However you learn to get used to having a bunch of them just sitting on you, 'cos it's not as if they'll sting or anything. However, just as I've learned to ignore them, I actually do get bitten by a big march fly. So now I have to look out for them again!
As we are relaxing at night after cooking a BBQ, a park ranger comes round to talk to us about being "dingo-smart". He tells us not to leave any food, or even cooking utensils lying around as that would attract them to our camp. No worries (good Aussie phrase there) about leaving empty beer cans around though!
We reckon we've been doing OK, but early morning on day 3 as we're packing up the van, a dingo wanders into the campsite and takes a stroll around, watching various groups. He watches us for a while and comes quite close. We do what we're supposed to do - keep still so we don't worry him - and he wanders right in and steals a loaf of bread from the back of the van. We're all gutted - there's no way we'll get "I'm Dingo-smart" badges now.
I get the chance to drive again as we make our way back down the beach, stopping to see some coloured sandstone at the beach, and taking hikes inland to see Rainbow Gorge (really a walk through multi-coloured sand-dunes) and Lake Wabby (a lake on the side of a huge sand-dune).
From here we make our way back across the island to get the ferry back to Hervey Bay, where I'm delighted to shower, shave and wash my clothes!
Airlie Beach/Whitsundays
We arrive in Airlie Beach late Friday night after a 13 hour bus journey. Next day we head into town to finalise arrangements for our next adventure - a 3 day/3 night sailing trip round the Whitsunday Islands. We've gone for a bit of luxury this time, and join up with our group to board the Solway Lass in the evening. The Solway Lass is a tallship (the only one in the islands) which was recently refurbished to work the Whitsundays, and has reasonably comfortable cabins, at least compared with what we've been told about some of the other boats. We're worried that because we've gone for the luxury option it might be a mainly older crowd, but it's actually quite mixed; some older Americans and Germans, plus a multi-national group of younger people. There are around 25 people in total.
We get to know our group over some food and a few beers. There are only 5 crew, but one of them (Pete) is our full-time barman. He runs a tab system so he just takes a note of what we're drinking and we'll pay at the end of the trip. Potentially a dangerous situation methinks, but I've come fully armed with a set of credit cards. Conor and I are drinking XXXX Gold in order to avoid the VB headaches, and Pete is a bit worried because he doesn't have a big stock of it. At his suggestion I move onto Tooheys New. Conor sticks with the XXXX until we're informed by our captain Mark that it is a "mid-strength beer", at which point his pride forces him to go with the Tooheys as well.
Next morning we're at the bar (don't worry, not drinking yet), and we take a look at the tab sheet. Conor and I have drunk 7 beers each. We're being led only by John from Ireland with 9, although he admits that a couple of them were for his girlfriend Saoirse. Nobody else is close behind us; it doesn't look like we're with a partying crowd.
Today brings a couple of snorkelling stops at Blue Pearl Bay (Hayman Island) and Mantaray Bay (Hook Island). This is probably the first time in my life that my fear of water has really bothered me. In particular, at Mantaray Bay the snorkelling is done straight off the small tender, and there's no way I could jump in the water from here. No problem though, I can see a few fish from the boat, although I'm told the coral is impressive by the snorkellers. After a lovely dinner prepared by our chef Sophie, the bar tab competition starts in earnest while we get to know our crowd a bit better. The group doesn't seem to be gelling very well though - it's a nice enough crowd, but no real craic as Conor would say. We do get friendly with two English couples - Andy and Alison, Stuart and Vicki - as well as the only Aussies - Brisbane girls Kerry and Alex. John, Conor and I are trading places at the top of the table, but I'm tired and head to bed early so they end up pulling away from me.
On Monday comes the highlight of the trip - Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. First we are dropped off on the other side of the island so we can walk up to a viewpoint overlooking the beach. Then we sail round and get a couple of hours on the beach itself. It's a few miles long, with absolutely gorgeous white sand, and the best part of all is that it's virtually deserted. John and I agree that it would be totally perfect if we just had a ball for a kickabout! On the way to our anchoring point for tonight, conditions are favourable enough to sail using wind power for the first time on the trip. We all get the chance to help put the sails up, the engines are off and we cruise majestically along, being overtaken by just about everything else on the sea!
At night I'm very tired for some reason, and go to bed pretty early. No chance of winning the bar tab competition, but actually Conor is in bed before me and still ends up ahead at the end of the trip. He must have been drinking for Ireland the previous two nights!
Tuesday is our last day; time to make sure we fully appreciate the Whitsundays. It's been a relaxing trip, sitting on deck watching the islands go by. The weather has been perfect, and this has helped show the islands at their best.
We arrive back on dry land and have a couple of hours before heading to Morocco's in Airlie Beach for our post-trip meal. There are also groups from a couple of other boats - Anaconda II and Derwent Hunter, and we decide we've been on the wrong boat. At the Anaconda table there are 12 girls and only 5 guys. I'm sure we'd have had more fun on that boat! However, tonight our group really surprises us. There's a DJ and some competitions after the meal, and all of a sudden we're all dancing on top of the tables, winning jugs of beer for our efforts! Conor wins his way into a limbo dancing competition and makes a valiant effort despite being about twice the height of his opponents. At the end of the night we really have bonded as a group, yet it's time to say goodbye and we're unlikely to meet anyone again. As we say our goodbyes, Clare (from England) tells Conor that he's gorgeous. Conor is quite chuffed, despite the fact that we've already discussed the fact that she's a total space cadet!
Cairns
After our night out last night, I'm disappointed to be leaving Airlie Beach. OK, so we were only in the one bar, but the whole place had a good feel to it in general and it would have been nice to stay another day. But we're off on another 13 hour bus journey to Cairns, home of the famous Woolshed, where dancing on the tables is a nightly occurence. At least we got some practice in last night.
We arrive in Cairns at 8:30pm and book into Captain Cook's hostel as recommended by Andy and Alison. We're not impressed that it's a good 20 minute walk into town and when we get there it seems pretty dead and a bit dull. Not the vibrant feel of Airlie Beach. We try to go for a pint but nobody will let us in 'cos Conor is wearing a vest, so we head back to the bar in the hostel which is pretty quiet and nobody talks to us (plus they're all English!). Take me back to Airlie Beach!
Next day is Thursday November 1st. Doesn't feel like November weather at all! One of the reasons we've come straight up to Cairns is because there's lots of stuff to do here, so of course today we do absolutely nothing. Well, it's absolutely roasting outside, so it seems like a plan to sit in and watch game 4 of the baseball "world" series which is live on TV. At night we head into town to PJ O'Briens and a rather nice Dutch girl comes up and has a chat with me purely because I'm watching the Celtic - Juventus game on the telly. Hmmm... if this is going to happen I may be forced to watch Celtic more often! Later we head over to the Woolshed, and I'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't live up to the hype. We don't even get a dance on the tables, although Conor does manage to knock a bunch of people over on the dance floor.
On Friday we go to Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Centre (pronounced jab-a-guy). We learn a little about aboriginal history, especially what happened when the "white man" settled in Australia, and some of it is quite horrific. In general I'm not that impressed with the place, although I do enjoy getting the opportunity to throw a boomerang. On Saturday we do a day trip to the Atherton Tablelands, about an hour or so drive up into the mountains from Cairns. In the morning we do a couple of rainforest walks, and although our guide Emma is fantastic, telling us loads of interesting stuff about the animals and vegetation, I'm a little disappointed. I'd expect a rainforest walk to be more than just 300m from a car park to a road. In the afternoon, we go canoeing on a lake in the rainforest, and see some interesting animals, including two lace monitors. These are big (over a metre long) lizard/goanna type things, and they appear to be engaging in something of an amorous exchange, oblivious to the fact that there are about 20 people watching them. We also stop to pick up some ochre - coloured bits of stone which the aborigines use to paint their bodies. Of course, we have to take a few minutes to do some face-painting. As it's Saturday night, we give O'Brien's and the Woolshed another shot, but again there's not that much to report. And I thought Cairns was the nightlife capital of the east coast.
On Sunday we're on another daytrip, this time to Daintree National Park, on the way to Cape Tribulation. We do a river cruise where we see our first crocodile of the trip, but it's only a "freshie" (more on this later). The highlight today is our lunch which is locally caught barramundi fish - lovely! We also get to try a few tropical fruits, most of which I've never heard of before and I can't remember their names. They too are lovely though. Our guide tells us that the restaurant used to have a working organ which was destroyed in a flood a few years back. Rather than throwing it out they just put it into the toilets, resulting in the biggest organ you'll ever see in the men's toilets! True story, believe it or not. On the way back we visit a "rainforest habitat" - a small zoo where most of the animals get to mingle. More koalas (they're definitely my favourite!) but most interesting is the story of the cassowary, which is in danger of becoming extinct. There are only 1200 left in Australia, and if they die out the rainforest will be changed dramatically, as the the cassowary is the only animal which spreads the seeds of around 120 tropical fruits.
Monday comes and we're leaving tonight, but we still haven't seen the Great Barrier Reef. We head out to Green Island, and due to our lack of swimming ability our main means of seeing the reef is via trips on a glass-bottomed boat and a semi-submersible. The visibility is very poor, apparently because it's coral spawning season. We see some interesting fish, but we don't really get a good view of the coral; certainly not the colours I was expecting to see.
At night we fly out of Cairns bound for Darwin. I'm glad to be leaving as I've not been all that impressed with the town, and the day trips we've done have been OK, but nothing special.
Darwin/Kakadu
We arrive in Darwin around 10pm on Monday 5th November. The heat and humidity in the town are oppresive even at this time of night, and it doesn't augur well for the next few days. We pop out for a couple of beers and a quick wander round town. We bump into a sort-of strange American bloke who asks us for directions to the pub. When he hears Conor's accent he makes some comment about the political situation in Northern Ireland, and my immediate thought is that the stupid American should keep his nose out of other people's business! We've not seen the last of him though.
Next morning we're up early for the first part of a marathon trip. We've booked a "Cloud 9" tour, which includes a 3 day trip to Kakadu National Park, followed by a 3 day trip from Darwin to Alice Springs, and finally a 3 day trip in the Ayers Rock area.
For the Kakadu trip we have a group of 12 led by our guide Cam; a rough and ready sort of bloke who is into hunting, shooting, rally driving and of course drinking. When he wants to attract someone's attention he'll shout "Hey knacker" or "Hey shagger", or something else equally as strange. He tells us that a lot of people don't want to come to Kakadu at this time of year because we're in the build up to the wet season meaning it's very humid. However, he reckons it's the best time of year because there is more growth in the bush due to a little rain, and this results in more opportunities to see wildlife.
We get to our camp for the night at Point Stuart Wilderness Lodge on the edge of Kakadu at lunchtime, and start to get to know our new friends over lunch and a quick dip in the pool. There are 3 Americans - Mike and Mel are brother and sister, plus Sarah, an English couple Gareth and Tamsin, 2 Dutch girls Sigrid and Lotte, and 3 Norwegians Kjetil, Tore and Camilla.
After lunch we are led on a bush walk by a local aboriginal with an interesting name - Kevin! And he welcomes Cam with that traditional aboriginal greeting, "It's f***ing hot, innit?" It is indeed very hot, but it's good to see that even someone who was brought up in this area is sweating buckets like the rest of us. Kevin tells us a little about some of the trees in the bush, but of course I've forgotten it all by now! His style is very interesting, and he finishes every sentence it seems with a shouted "Yo!" If an aboriginal rap ever makes it into the charts it'll probably be him!
Next we head off to a billabong in the Mary River wetlands, an area which would be totally flooded for miles during the wet season. We do some wildlife spotting, and this is much better than our previous cruise in Daintree. We see a bunch of freshwater crocodiles on the way out. Freshies typically grow to only about 3 metres and are not a danger to humans; in fact they don't eat mammals at all. Everyone is hoping we get to see even one saltwater (or estuarine) crocodile. Salties (which can live in fresh or salt water) are the biggies. They can grow to 8m and over, and they would attack a human given the chance. And we�re in luck. On the way back we see 4 or 5 salties, the biggest of which is probably over 4m long. We also see a dingo puppy, and it strolls along the bank for a while, tracking our boat.
At night we have some traditional aboriginal entertainment round the camp fire. Why we need a fire I will never know as I'm stewing already. The entertainment of dances and didgeridoo playing, is led by Kevin in his own inimitable style. He's joined by his mates Michael and Jeffrey (more traditional aboriginal names) who often burst out laughing. We wonder if the dances are a bit of a piss-take to be honest, but we're assured that most of them are real. There's a bit of crowd participation and Kjetil and Sigrid end up painted from head to toe in aboriginal paint. After the show is over I have a shot at the didgeridoo, and discover that I can put my cornet-playing experience to good use.
It is very hot and humid overnight, and a lot of people have trouble sleeping. In contrast I have no problem whatsoever, which is a huge surprise given my trouble sleeping in Boston this summer. However, I'm forced to get up in the middle of the night for a toilet visit, and I nearly trip over one of the wallabies which hang around at Point Stuart. I decide it's a better plan to actually go to the toilet block in case I end up peeing over a wallaby!
On day 2 we are up at 5am, so that we can maximise our time in Kakadu. This is a terrible time to be getting up though; someone should tell Cam that we're supposed to be on holiday! The bus sets off and most people fall asleep, but I stay awake and see a fantastic sunrise. The sun looks like a huge red ball of fire for about 10 minutes or so. (Actually, I suppose that's what the sun actually is'). Our drive is mainly through savannah; grassy terrain and eucalyptus trees. Our destination for the day is Twin Falls and it takes us about 4 hours total driving to get there, via stops for breakfast and lunch, and a visit to Jim Jim Falls which are totally dried up at the moment.
Twin Falls are at the end of a gorge, and there is no way to get there other than to swim 600m along the river through the gorge. Swimming the gorge is the most spectacular part of our whole trip so far. The views are stunning, and the experience of actually swimming there is fantastic. There is the potential for crocodiles to be in the gorge, but we're assured that it's (almost) impossible for there to be salties here. Twin Falls themselves are beautiful and we spend nearly three hours here. This gives us the chance to get to know some of the people in the group a bit better, but I can hardly say we're bonding well as a group. The Norweegies aren't really mixing much, although the Dutch girls seem to be a bit of a bridge between them and the rest of us.
At night there's something of a breakthrough in terms of group togetherness, as we're all in the bar until it shuts. Cam arrives back near closing time after helping another driver fix his bus, and is amazed to find we're the last group still going. He had us marked down as one of the quieter groups he's had. And Camilla seems to be coming out of her shell a little as well, as she strolls up on stage and joins in with the singing of American Pie.
On day 3 the main focus is aboriginal rock art. There are two main sites in Kakadu - Nourlangie and Ubirr. The art at Nourlangie all seems to date from the 1960s, so I'm not sure why this is interesting. At Ubirr the art is much older and Cam tells us a lot of the background behind it, but I think we're all keen to get a move on a bit quicker, firstly because it's so hot, and secondly because of the flies which have been plaguing us for the last 3 days. There aren't quite as many flies here as there were in Fraser Island, but they are much more annoying, flying around your face, landing on your face and trying to crawl into your eyes. The views from the top of Ubirr Rock are excellent, as we can see the different eco-systems that make up Kakadu: wetlands, savannah, rock, monsoon forests. However, up here there are even more annoying tiny green flies all over us so we take a few photos and get back down as soon as we can. In the afternoon it's time for the 4 hour drive back to Darwin.
The Kakadu trip isn't over yet, as we have the post-trip bash at the Vic Hotel still to come. And just like the Whitsundays, our group finally comes to life now that the trip is over. Again we are by far the best dancers when asked to get up on the tables and win some jugs of beer. The Norweegies come out of their shells totally as Kjetil takes part in a didgeridoo-playing competition and Tore and Camilla try the clothes-swapping competition. I head off around 1am and miss all the scandal of the evening, including a romantic moment between Conor and Sarah, and Camilla dancing topless on stage!
Tomorrow morning we'll leave Darwin before it gets light, and I still won't have seen it in the daylight!
Darwin to Alice Springs (The Plus Bus)
On day 4 we are up at 5am, and although I was in bed for about 3 hours, I got nothing like that amount of sleep as I was kept awake by noise in the hostel. So I'm a tired boy as we embark on our coach down the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs. There are 23 of us on a 40-odd seater which means plenty of space, but there is almost a rebellion when our driver Drew informs us that the air-conditioning is broken. We're sweating buckets, but at least we're only doing 300km of the 1500km journey today. Eight of our group from Kakadu is doing the whole 9 day trip, so we still have Gareth, Tamsin, Mike, Mel, Sigrid and Sarah with us. When we get to Katherine, our stopping point for the day, I discover that the American guy we met in Darwin the first night is on the bus, and he's actually Canadian. Canadians are really the only nationality to have their national flag displayed on their rucksacks, but they all seem to do it. Something to do with making sure people know they're not American. However, John is way over the top. He has a Molson Canadian T-shirt, a baseball cap saying "I am Canadian" and hangs a Canadian flag outside his tent. He seems to be a bit of a geek to be honest.
We head for a cruise at Katherine Gorge and start to meet the others on the trip. I'm amazed at the number of people, especially girls, who are travelling on their own. In addition to Sigrid and Sarah, there are another 4 girls travelling on their own; Sam and Karen from Ireland, Clare from England and Heather from Canada. I give Heather a bit of stick about the Canadian flag thing, so she gives me a small maple leaf to pin onto my hat. I should have kept my mouth shut! I mention to Sam that I totally missed seeing the (apparently) huge stuffed buffalo in the place we stopped for breakfast this morning. I also mention another incident earlier in the trip when I missed seeing something else very obvious, and she says, "I get the feeling you're a bit dozy". I'm not sure I like her very much!
Katherine Gorge is beautiful, but after swimming the Twin Falls gorge it's a bit of an anticlimax. I should probably have taken the option to canoe rather than see it from a big boat, but it seemed too hot, and I was pretty tired when asked to make a decision this morning.
At dinner time comes the most bizarre moment of the whole trip. John (the Canadian) has told Clare that he reckons he's related to her, and she thinks he's right, given what he knows about her family. He stands up in front of the group and says he wants to make an announcement. He starts saying that he and Clare are related, then says, "Actually, we're not related - this has all been a big wind-up. And I'm not Canadian either!" We ask him where he is from and he says Ireland, but he's now talking with an English (west country) accent. Conor asks him some basic questions about Ireland, but he doesn't answer very conviningly. This becomes a big talking point for the evening and for the next few days.
After dinner Drew has a game for us, and this helps build the atmosphere within the group. I think I like this group! Tonight is a bit cooler after some rain in the late afternoon but it's still a little sticky overnight.
Day 5 is a big driving day. We have a stop in the morning for a dip at Mataranka thermal pools. They're not too hot, just about right really, but amazingly the air temperature is actually cooler. At lunchtime we stop at Daly Waters, a town with a population of 17. We head into the Daly Waters pub, which actually has a good few people in it. I suppose when it's the only place for miles there's a good chance of travellers stopping there. The pub is very interesting as it has loads of memorabilia over the walls, all left by travellers. The pool rules are also interesting, in particular the last one which states "If you lose by seven balls, drop your pants and donate them to the bar OR shout the bar".
Our stop for the night is Juno Horse Farm at Tennant Creek, where Drew has another game for us round the camp fire. Tonight we have the option, which everyone takes up, of sleeping under the stars in an Aussie swag. A swag is essentially just a mattress rolled up inside a protective cover. You sleep in your own sleeping bag, but the cover can also be pulled up over you (including your head) for extra warmth and/or protection from insects, snakes, dingos or whatever else you're worried about. The temperature and humidity have dropped significantly now and it's a very pleasant night to be sleeping outside. When I wake in the morning, John tells me that I have interesting expressions on my face when I sleep. "I got it on film, I'll show you the tape later", he says. "You weren't filming us sleeping last night were you?", I ask and he replies "Oh no, just this morning." Hmmm.
On day 6 we have a bit of a bonus; we don't have to get up until 7am. This is the latest wake-up call in the whole nine days. Our first stop is at a gold mining museum - we're in the biggest gold mining area in Australia. The museum is a mocked up mine underground and the guide gives me a torch and the responsibility of turning it on if the lights go out. Then he says that he's not sure that he should give it to me, as I seem a bit slow! I later ask Sam if she put him up to that comment, but she denies responsibility.
Again this is a big driving day with our main stop being the Devils Marbles, a area with lots of big red rocks scattered on the ground. Dunno how to describe it - you'll have to see the photos! We have a quick stop at the Tropic of Capricorn marker as we head south out of the tropics towards Alice Springs. I reflect that the scenery on the drive down has not been what I expected. I thought large parts would be totally barren, but there have been trees or at least bushes most of the way.
On the bus today John surpasses himself. He uses his video camera to interview people (he claims to be an investigative journalist) on different topics, but in particular about the English couple who were attacked a few months ago on the Stuart Highway. The guy was never found and John speculates that the girl killed him and then made up the story. "Did she bump him off?", he is asking everyone.
We arrive in Alice Springs and have a couple of hours for laundry before a party in the restaurant of our hostel - Melanka. Again there is the inevitable dancing on the tables and a good time is had by all. It's a shame we are leaving some people here, but hopefully we'll see Sam and Karen in Sydney.
Alice Springs/Red Centre
On day 7 we're up early again after the inevitable 3 or 4 hours sleep. I�m beginning to get used to this. There are a few buses on the Ayers Rock trip, but we're pleased that our gang of eight is all on the same bus. We also have a few others from the Plus Bus; Erik and Karen (another one) from Holland, and the two older women Claire (another one!) from France and Gerte from Switzerland. Our guide Steve is a bit of a fruitcake. He tells us that there's been so much rain recently that the Red Centre might as well be called the Green Centre. Apparently there's only this much green around here once every hundred years. I suppose we should feel privileged to be seeing it like this, but I can see green in Scotland whenever I want!
Our first stop is about an hour outside Alice at a camel farm. Steve announces that we can have a camel ride here, a bite to eat, or just go for a "pooh or a pee"! Gareth points out that you just have to build a toilet in the Northern Territory and all the tour buses will stop; it doesn't matter what else you provide. At this point we reflect that we're on a 9 day tour of outback toilets!
We're heading to King's Canyon today, but stop to collect firewood along the way. Here we suffer a casualty as Erik, in the process of breaking a branch, gets a bit of wood embedded in the back of his leg. Steve takes him to the medical centre at King's Canyon where he's told that there is a small piece of wood still embedded behind the tendon and he'll have to be airlifted back to Alice to get it removed. So he's taken back by the Flying Doctors, while his girlfriend Karen decides there's no point worrying about it and stays on the trip with us!
At King's Canyon the temperature is just over 20C and very pleasant. Not the 39C that it has been in the last couple of weeks! This means we have a very pleasant climb and walk through the canyon area, which according to Steve is a proper canyon formed by a split in the rock due to the pressure of the water on it. Apparently most "canyons" (e.g. the Grand Canyon) are really gorges formed simply by erosion.
A feature of these trips is that everyone mucks in to help make dinner, etc. Tonight though is another example (and there have been a few!) where Gareth and I look in the kitchen and decide there are too many cooks already! Along with Conor we decide we should really offer our services, but on entering the kitchen Steve grabs us and says, "Guys, just get yourselves a glass of wine!" Maybe the fruitcake comment was a bit uncalled for.
It's actually pretty cold tonight, and the tents are a bit drafty as they are designed to let in a breeze during the hot weather. My sleeping bag is just about up to the job though.
Day 8 comes, and today we get our first look at Ayers Rock. Actually, it's more correct to call it by its aboriginal name Uluru nowadays. The typical pictures are of a bright red/brown rock, but there's no sun today so it's a dull brown colour. After a quick photo we leave the Rock, but we'll be back later. We drive about 40km to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). The Olgas are bigger and cover more area than Ayers Rock, and in my opinion are more spectacular. For some reason they aren't as famous though. We do the Valley of the Winds walk through the Olgas and the views here are very impressive. The walk is closed at 11am on days where the temperature is forecast to go above 36C, and this has happened in the last week or two. No such problems today though, it's about 17C!
Today brings a few candidates for my favourite quotes of the trip so far. Firstly, Conor goes for his favourite snack of Tim Tams (chocolate biscuits) and diet coke. He's munching away and Sarah (the two of them have become quite attached by now) says "You're just like a girl, with your chocolate and your diet coke". Secondly, Gareth and Tamsin (or G + T as we prefer to call them) will be leaving us at Ayers Rock tomorrow, and not coming back to Alice for the final party of the trip. We're disappointed that they won't be table-dancing with us tomorrow night in Melanka, and Gareth says "It's OK, that's how Tamsin earned the money for our trip!"
We head back to Uluru for a plastic cup of champagne while watching the sunset. "What's the point", we think, as we've not seen the sun all day, but there's some sort of miracle as we get a little break in the clouds just at the horizon, and as the sun goes down the rock goes a fantastic red colour, with different shadowed areas producing different colours.
Dinner tonight produces another funny moment as Mike, getting stuck into the BBQ, announces, "I really like Australian sausage". OK, I know it's not that funny, but Conor and I are in tears laughing. After dinner, we're entertained at the camp fire by a French guy called Pierre who has appeared from the camp site next to us. He's really drunk and we have fun taking the mickey out of him, but he doesn't even notice. Simple things amuse us I suppose.
Day 9 is the last day of the trip, and I'm looking forward to getting back to civilisation. But first we have to get up at 4am in order to see the sun rise at Uluru. The idea is to either climb the rock or walk around it as the sun is rising. Climbing is actively discouraged by the aboriginal owners, as it is seen as desecrating a sacred site. Plenty people climb it though, but none of our group do it. Steve got us there before the climb opened, so even those who wanted to go up just ended up walking round. The rock turns a nice shade of red as the sun comes up (and we have clear skies today). Really though, it's just a nice stroll beside a big rock, and I don't think we needed to be up so early. G, T, Mel and I have a good chat on the way round. At one point, in Steve-style I remark that I could do with getting back to the car park for a pooh and a pee, and Mel gives me a good laugh by saying, "It must be awkward for blokes if you need both, 'cos you need to do them in different positions". Just in case any girls out there are still confused, we actually are capable of doing both at the same time!
After lunch it's off to the airport to say our farewells to G + T, but we should see them in Sydney in a week or so. It's a shame that the gang of eight is breaking up, as we've all got on pretty well and had a good few laughs along the way. We embark on the five hour drive back to Alice Springs, and again we're off out to Melanka for our final party of the trip. Erik appears in the restaurant on crutches and shows us the bit of wood that was removed from his leg. It's about 2 inches long! He is very cheerful for a guy that isn't sure exactly when he'll next be able to walk properly. Also in the restaurant is John, fresh off his Ayers Rock trip. Apparently his group was much more receptive to him than we were. Ah well, what can we do?. The restaurant is very quiet tonight, and dancing on the tables seems to be out of the question. However, Conor, Mike and I get it started eventually, keeping up our record of visiting every toilet and dancing on every table in the Northern Territory.
Next morning it's unfortunately time to say goodbye to Mike and Mel as they make their way back to the States. Today is really a relax and recover day; time to catch up with laundry, do a bit of shopping, etc. Alice Springs isn't much of a place really, but I sort of like it. There's one main shopping street with a pedestrianised zone (they just call this a mall in Australia). And that's about it really!
On Friday we're off to the railway station to catch the overnight train to Adelaide. The station handles only 4 trains a week - 2 to Adelaide and 2 from Adelaide. We meet Karen and Clare who, worried about prices on the train, have brought a crate of beer with them. The train journey is called The Ghan, and is supposed to be very famous. I had never heard of it before though! They actually welcome us to the "legendary" Ghan. Maybe it's legendary if you've got a posh ticket with a cabin and a meal in a nice restaurant, but to me it's just a long train journey. We see a bunch of people we know on the train, including Sigrid and Pierre. Also, John is there, and he's showing some of his video footage in the lounge car, with a noisy Australian/English crowd watching.
Sarah was due to fly to Melbourne today back to her aunt's where she was staying before. However, she has decided to throw away her ticket and come with us to Melbourne via Adelaide. I'm a little worried about this. We've been with a bunch of people for the last few days so it hasn't bothered me at all that Conor is spending all his time with her. However, our friends are beginning to fall by the wayside, and I could easily get stuck with just the two of them. And on the train, they really piss me off actually 'cos they have become very couply, and their couply conversations are very childish and giggly which makes them impossible to become part of. So, I head back down the train to find Karen and Clare and their beer. The bar is about to close anyway so it makes perfect sense. The girls give a me a beer or two, and I didn't even have to ask. The problem is that you're not supposed to bring your own beer on, and their research didn't stretch to finding out what sort of beer was sold on the train. So we're sitting there with cans of Tooheys, whereas everyone else has VB or Fosters, and we have to hide it every time the conductor comes by. Eventually we get rumbled, but after receiving assurances that we haven't got any more left (aye right), he leaves us alone.
Eventually I head off to catch a few hours sleep.
Adelaide/Kangaroo Island/Great Ocean Road/Melbourne
We arrive in Adelaide on the morning of Saturday 17th November. We're tired so don't get up to much, aside from a nice walk down by the river, and a stroll along Rundle St with a quite good looking bar and restaurant scene.
On Sunday we do a day trip to Kangaroo Island. I'm not overly impressed; maybe I'm just not in the right mood for it. We see some nice coastal scenery and some wildlife including koalas and sea-lions. It's quite cold and windy, and my ears get cold down on the sea-lion beach. Where's my woolly hat? There's a big story about the koalas on the island at the moment, as there are 33000 of them and there's not really enough eucalyptus for all of them to eat. So one plan is to cull 20000 of them, and of course there's a lot of outrage about that. We get back to our hostel, Backpack Oz, quite late at night, but I hang around watching a video with Sigrid and some of the others. The hostel is quite small and there's a really nice atmosphere, so it's a shame we're leaving tomorrow. This is the last we'll see of Sigrid, so only three of the eight left now.
On Monday, thanks to a very helpful man at the Greyhound ticket office, we're starting a two day trip to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road. Conor and I can do this trip on our bus pass without having to pay extra. The first day is uneventful, but on Tuesday we hit the Great Ocean Road itself. At first I'm rather underwhelmed, but when we hit the Loch Ard Gorge and Twelve Apostles areas I'm impressed. The Twelve Apostles are rocky needles sitting just out into the ocean, although there are now only nine of them left.
We leave the ocean behind and arrive in Melbourne around 7pm. We wave goodbye to Sarah (for the moment) and Conor and I are picked up by our host Patrick who I used to work with in Edinburgh. Patrick has managed to get us tickets for the Australia v Uruguay World Cup playoff game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Kick-off is only an hour away so we better get a move on. As we get close to the ground the atmosphere sounds incredible, but once we get inside I'm a bit disappointed by the noise level. There are 85000 people there, but I think they could get behind their team a little more. As Conor points out, for a lot of the crowd football isn't really their sport, so I suppose they've got an excuse. Having said all this, the place goes mental when Australia score the only goal of the game. A few flares are lit and the smoke they give off makes it feel like watching a game in Italy or Spain.
We head into town for a couple of drinks, and afterwards disaster strikes as we discover the car is locked in the car park overnight, along with all our gear. We haven't eaten anything yet, so it's time to admit that after two months of travelling we eventually eat a Macdonalds! Well, it was the only place that was open.
On Wednesday we don't see Sarah all day! We wander round Melbourne and I decide I quite like it, although the only thing of significance we do is go up to the viewing gallery at the top of the Rialto Tower. At night we have a nice meal with Patrick and his wife Trish near their house in Ellwood, which is a beach suburb near St Kilda, not too far out of the centre.
On Thursday morning we're up early again for our bus to Sydney, and guess what? Yip, Sarah is coming with us again!
Sydney
We arrive in Sydney at 9pm on Thursday (22nd November). We've booked a hostel at Bondi Beach, and unusually for Australia we have to find our own way there on public transport. This is the first hostel we've stayed in in Australia which hasn't picked us up from the bus/train station. We get to Bondi at 10pm and I'm not impressed by the hostel. My dorm seems really dirty, with people's gear all over the place, and I can't actually work out which of the 4 beds is mine as there's stuff on each one. We go out for a walk and hopefully a quiet pint, but we can't actually find a pub. We just go back to the hostel and watch TV for a while in the yucky TV room, and I'm quite depressed, thinking maybe we should have stayed somewhere in town.
Friday is a new day though, and I head into town on my own to see Sydney. I get to Circular Quay, in the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and just round the corner is the Sydney Opera House. Aha! Five weeks later and I feel I've finally arrived in Australia! I take a walk through The Rocks, an old area of narrow streets just at the foot of the bridge, and then head up onto the bridge where I climb the end tower and get fantastic views over the harbour. That night we all head back into town where we meet up again with Gareth, Tamsin and Sam, and we catch up with what's been going on over the last week or so.
On Saturday we meet up with Seamus and Christina, our friends from Rarotonga. We take the ferry over to Manly with them. I've been told that Manly is much nicer than Bondi, but it's really just another beach resort. It does have a bigger beach than Bondi though. It's great to catch up with Seamus and Christina. They've just come from New Zealand, where they spent 4 weeks, so we pick their brains a little as we'll be there in a few days. Tonight we go out in Bondi - we've found where the pubs are! We meet up with Mick and Vince (a couple of friends of Conor from Cork), and G, T and Sam come along too. I�m getting to like Bondi now. It has the feel of staying in a smaller town rather than a big city, and I'm also getting used to the hostel - it's not so bad!
Next day we meet up with Seamus and Christina again and head out to the Hunter Valley on a wine-tasting trip. The drive there is quite picturesque, and I'm delighted to drive past both Peats Ridge and Peat Island. Unfortunately I then discover that the only thing on Peat Island is a psychiatric hospital! The wine-tasting is very enjoyable, and we get a lovely lunch at the second of the three wineries where we get four separate courses, with different wines to match each course.
At night we see the Harbour Bridge lit up, and it's quite spectacular, with the lights of the city behind it. But why is the Opera House not lit up? I then head off to Darling Harbour as I've discovered I can see the Rangers - Celtic game in the casino there at 11 o'clock tonight. G + T come and meet me as they're staying near there, and they come along to watch the game with me. Rangers lose 2-1, and I head to the bus stop to get the bus back to Bondi with my tail between my legs. Sydney can be a rather lonely place when your team has lost, and the 1:37am bus doesn't come until 2:21!
I'm quite tired on Monday, and have a lazy day. Later in the afternoon I walk along the coast path to Coogee beach, just over an hour away. As people have told me, I think it's a bit nicer than Bondi; certainly feels more relaxed. Sam is staying there so I meet up with her for a coffee before heading back for a lazy night in the hostel, being entertained by two mad London girls who moved into the room last night. I hear that Uruguay beat Australia 3-0 this morning, so unfortunately the Aussies won't make it to the world cup.
Tuesday is our last day in Australia, and Conor, Sarah and I head out to see Stadium Australia, venue for last year's Olympics. It would be quicker to get there on the train, but we get the ferry there for two reasons. Firstly, our pass doesn't let us use the train and we'd have to pay extra. However, the main reason is that I want to see the harbour again. The harbour is really beautiful, and really makes Sydney. And it's huge - the boat to the stadium takes 50 minutes, although there are a few stops along the way. I'm disappointed of the tour we get of the stadium. It's only 30 minutes long, and part of that is watching a video. We get to sit in the front row of the top tier, and then down onto the pitch. Other stadium tours I've done have covered a lot more ground. It is interesting to see it though, because they're in the middle of a big rebuilding job to make it more suitable for team sport watching. The running track has gone, as have the huge stands at each end. Eventually it will hold 80000 rather than the 110000 it held for the Olympics, and the front seats will move in and out to give optimum viewing for football/rugby and cricket/Aussie rules.
It's our last night and we go to a pub quiz in Paddington (between Bondi and town) with Mick and friends of his. G + T come along as well (how reliable are they?!) but Seamus and Christina don't make it, and nor does Sam. Both Seamus and Sam have been looking for work and both will be working tomorrow, but I'm not sure I can accept that as an excuse!
We'll be saying goodbye to Sarah tomorrow, and I have mixed feelings about this. Of course it will be a shame to see her go, but on the other hand it'll be good to get back to just the lads on tour!
At the end of the night I head back to Bondi on my own, get a bite to eat, sit on a bench overlooking the beach and reflect on the last six weeks. It's been really hectic a lot of the time, but we've had a great time and seen a lot of interesting things. Possibly the biggest thing though is that we've met a bunch of really nice people, and it's a shame to be leaving them all behind. But here's hoping for more of the same in New Zealand!