http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/ames123/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from ames123 en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:58:42 +0000 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:58:42 +0000 The next morning we packed up camp and headed out to Kings Canyon for our 3 hour walk. It was a hard walk At least the first part was anyway the hill we had to climb to reach the top was very very steep Kings Canyon 270m high was beautiful with views of the vast nothingness out there. We saw the Lost City and the Garden of Eden. We finished the walk late morning and headed off to cook up our http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/King-s-Canyon/blog-445965.html So the next morning we were supposed to go the sunrise viewing of Uluru but the clouds were so low there was no point. Doc said he had never seen cloud on Uluru so we were seeing something a bit different We went to the base of Uluru to do the base walk all the way round. We started at 6.45am and completed the 9km walk. It doesn't look that big but it is You can see how low the cloud was from m http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-441911.html The next day we were up at 5am for the long drive to Coober Pedy where we arrived at 2pm. Coober Pedy is roughly half way to Uluru. On the way we stopped at a salt lake that Doc the tour guide said is normally dry but today it had water. You could see the salt that had dried on the floor around the outside of the lake.Getting to Coober Pedy we had a little tour of the town where we went into the http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/South-Australia/Coober-Pedy/blog-439528.html So we got to Adelaide late that afternoon. I was staying in Backpack Oz as Sarah and Chris who I did OzIntro with in December work there. That evening I met the others from the tour at a cute pub called Grace Emily where we played pool listened to the band and drunk varying amounts of wine and tequilla. It was a good night though it did have a bit of a dodgy end.The next day I had a tour booked http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/South-Australia/Adelaide/blog-430364.html Got picked up at the very early time of 6.10am and left Adelaide for the start of our 6day Adventure Tours tour Adelaide to Alice Springs. We drove a LOT on this trip some days covering 700km with nothing inbetween.After a lot of driving and a few stops we arrived at the small town of Quorn which was to be our base for 2 nights. We were staying in an old mill. That afternoon we did a 3 hour 9k http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/South-Australia/Flinders-Ranges-National-Park/blog-425194.html The second day of the tour we saw a few more stacks before heading for the Grampians. The Grampians is a national park named after the Grampians in Scotland. We went to the Grampians culture centre where we learnt about the Aboriginal heritage here. The scenery here was stunning amazing viewsWe spent the night at Halls Gap where there were lots of kangeroos everywhere. In the morning there we http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Halls-Gap/blog-421404.html First some information that may come in handy one day. Picking locks using a hairgrip does work I spent a couple of days in Melbourne after Tasmania and one day I locked my locker key inside my locker. After a bit of effort with the hairgrip it opened I didn't think it would actually workSo Friday 22nd May saw me depart Melbourne for my Great Ocean Road and Grampians tour. Departing very early http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Port-Campbell/blog-421401.html I had decided a few days into my Tasmania trip that it would be great to hire a car for a couple of days. So I did that the day after Cradle Mountain. I chose a little Hyundi Getz from a place near the airport and off I went for two days. Some of my driving lessons were done in this car so I was familar with it. I had booked a bed at a town called bernie on the north west coast for that night so t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Tasmania/Burnie/blog-419075.html So I was back in Launceston and I still hadn't been to Cradle Mountain. So I booked a tour. I got picked up and it was just the tour guide and I Still it was a very comfortable drive in a Galaxy nice change from minibuses It was about 3 hours away we stopped once at Sheffield the town of the murals we murals everywhere Every year they have a mural painting competition. Apparently there a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Tasmania/Cradle-Mountain/blog-419644.html I wanted to see the east coast so I booked a two day tour with Under Down Under from Hobart to Launceston. It picked me up 7.30am the day after Port Arthur. I thought that was an early start I was to get much earlier ones in the outback on the mainland Jason was our tour guide and we had 15 passengers all together which I have just now realised is a lot of people compared to my other tours I ha http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Tasmania/blog-413007.html I left Sydney on 8th May and landed in Launceston in what looked like a field Launceston has a population of about 70000. The Arthouse hostel I stayed in during my stays here was lovely. It was an old hotel and had lots of character though it was very cold Was a strange day as it started very early for me. I decided to go check out the cateract gorge Launceston's highlight. It was so nice th http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Tasmania/blog-413001.html I didn't write in my diary for nearly three months so it's hard to remember what I did. Mostly it was just working. Late February Robyn's boyfriend Thomas came over and they left for Melbourne. it was easier to get rid of our room alltogether so I moved out and into Amy and Suze's flat living with Brazillians French and Korean's.There was a triathlon one weekend at Coogee which I meant to go to b http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-396713.html So I thought it was time for an update. Last blog I wrote about Christmas and New Year so I have a month and a half to cover here.Robyn who I met in Singapore flew to Sydney in the New Year and we viewed some places to live that I had found. We decided to go with the nicest one we saw and moved in some days later. It is in Sussex Street right in the middle of the city as central as you can be http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-373727.html So I arrived back in Sydney very early on 22nd December. The coach stop at Central station was literally across the road from my hostel so no problems finding it. Wake Up was to be my home for the next 10 days. Because I couldn't checkin until later I took a trek further into the city. I hadn't been in from this direction before so just walked and ended up at Darling Harbour. It is lovely here l http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-366460.html So the 16th December the day after I left Coogee I went to Melbourne. Had a great flight there on Jetstar owing to the fact that I had two seats to myself. Unfortunately my first impressions of Melbourne were not good I was used to Sydney but the main was due to fact that my lugguge didn't arrive So understandably I was a little disgruntled and not in the best of moods. I dumped my stuff at my http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-362275.html So OzIntro started on the Monday. Moved out of the room we were in into one with our group had a much better view of the sea That day we has city orientation and jet boating. We went into the city and had the standard pictures with the bridge and opera house in the background before moving onto the botanical gardens where we stood looking stupid with our arm extended holding bread for the birds. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/Coogee/blog-354947.html So I am in Oz First of all though I will tell you what I got up to in Singapore since my last blog.I have done most of the tourist things in Singapore. I went to the area around Raffles saw the famous hotel and saw the statue of the man himself Sir Stamford raffles founded Singapore and the Merlion across the bridge. Went to Chinatown a couple of times. It seemed a little fake to me there wer http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/blog-351712.html I thought I would be a bit more efficient in keeping this blog but obviously not I'm in Singapore now arrived here Saturday afternoon. It's rather hot I'll start from the beginning.Left the UK very eary Friday morning got the 9am plane. It was very nice had tv's in the headrests so you can guess what I did all journey Landed at Doha after 7 hours where I had a 7 hour wait until by next plane http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/Little-India/blog-350148.html