Rachel of Oz

In Echuca, Vic. Spent something like 10 hours on the bus getting to Melbourne and then had all day in the city to wait for my bus to Echuca. First impressions of Melbourne - FANTASTIC! So much going on! There's the fringe festival, an arts festival, something like 5 sports stadiums, and an outdoor music venue near the botanic gardens. Another place I wish I had more time to check out... I've got to return to Australia in the future when I'm rich. It was a shame saying goodbye to Paul after such a short time. I'd only known him for a week but he was such a gem of a travel buddy: easy going, lots of laughs. Hopefully we'll meet up in Melbourne at the end of the month when I go back there. Work ... read more

After Coober Pedy it was a lot more of nothing to see until the Flinders Ranges. We drove a couple hundred km into the Ranges and spent 45 minutes hiking to a great lookout point only for it to start raining buckets just as we got up there... so in the end we didn't see much unfortunately. It was a nice drive at any rate. To redeem the day we drove to Alligator Gorge in Mount Remarkable National Park (I love that name) and did a really cool hike there. We spent the night in Port Germein which is a tiny little town who's claim to fame is that is has the longest wooden jetty in Australia. (Then I found out later that there's actually a longer one in Western Australia, so Port Germeinians are living ... read more

Bill Bryson says in Down Under that "the great virtue about driving through emptiness is that when you come to anything - anything at all - that might be called a diversion you get disproportionately excited." In my opinion, truer words have never been written. Jesse and I and our new English friend Paul (our third English friend named Paul actually) embarked on a four day drive through the Outback from Alice Springs to Adelaide today. Anytime we saw ANYTHING, including a passing car, a bird, a tree, and especially any and all roadsigns, we almost crapped ourselves with excitement. Some highlights include a cow crossing the road, a pile of tires and a series of roadsigns stating "Caution Cattle" to which someone had helpfully added creative verbs. The first was "Caution Cattle Jumping" then "Caution ... read more

I considered today to be my real birthday since it's the 25th at home. We were up at 4:30am in order to watch the sun rise behind Uluru (Ayers Rock). It was stunning!! After that we did a long hike around Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) which was much easier than the King's Canyon walk but equally impressive. We also drove around Uluru and looked at some Aboriginal rock paintings and heard some Aboriginal stories and learned a bit about what the rock means to them and how they used it. (There are still aboriginals living near the rock but they no longer go there because of all the tourists.) In the cultural centre there is a book of letters from people all around the world who have taken rocks from Uluru and then mailed them back ... read more

FLIES!! FLIES, FLIES, FLIES!!!!! I've discovered the real reason that nobody really lives in the outback. Forget about the lack of water and the extreme heat - the flies are enough to drive anyone completely insane! At least I have luggage. Jesse doesn't. Virgin Blue left his in Sydney. They didn't accidentally put it on the wrong place (which I could understand as mistakes happen); they didn't put it on ANY plane! Anyway, yeah it's really hot here. After walking around all day I feel pretty ill. Hopefully I'll be okay for the three day Uluru tour we're doing tomorrow. There will be a lot of hiking.... read more

After a week in Sydney of desperately searching for work - ANY WORK, I was offered a free ride to Canberra and decided to accept. Canberra gets a lot of bad reviews from backpackers mostly because of its lack of nightlife but that's not why I'm here so I figured I'd give it a chance. It's the nation's capital for heaven's sake! Gotta see it. On paper Canberra looks very straightforward, convenient, and easy to navigate because it's a planned city based on a series of circles. The sheer scale of the city (it's HUGE) makes it extremely difficult to get around on foot. And it is possible to get a bit lost. It was very hot while I was there and the flies are in abundance and if you want to walk around where all ... read more