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Published: August 6th 2007
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Desert Venturer 1
Standing at Millstream Falls, Oz's widest waterfall G'day!
Although I was a bit anxious about being back on my own again I was so excited about this part of the trip - I finally got to go to the Ozzie Outback! I'd organised a 3 day bus trip with Desert Venturer tours down through the Outback to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory as I figured it would be just my luck to end up in some Wolf Creek/Deliverance combined nightmare so I played it safe and booked the tour.
I set off at 6.30am on Saturday morning and spent most of my first experience of the Outback snoozing on the bus! When I did manage to peel my eyes open I took in the views of the Great Dividing Ranges which run from Queensland right down to Victoria. We drove through the Atherton Tablelands and I was just stunned at how much space there is with absolutely nothing in it and no-one around! We covered hundreds of kilometres on our first day and other than about three lorries the only time we passed anyone was when we stopped at some of the sights, incredible!
Our first stop was at the Millstream Falls which is
Desert Venturer 2
Having a beer at Australia's smallest bar the widest waterfall in Oz. Apart from the stunning views, the thing that struck me the most was about how cold it was - I had thought the Outback would be roasting but over the next few days I was about to find out how wrong I was! Soon after that the paved road ended and we began to drive through cattle stations. The stations are absoultely huge (some are bigger than some countries in Europe, although if you think of Luxembourg I don't know if it's all that impressive!) and far too big to build the road around so we ploughed on through them and got our first views of the red soil that would shortly stain most of my clothes for good. We stopped for lunch outside the Oasis Roadhouse which, as Australia's smallest bar, was too tiny to fit more than three or four people inside at one time. During lunch I got to know some of the others on the trip and was chuffed to find out that quite a few of us were going to be doing the same trip down to Adelaide once we reached Alice Springs - the soon to be "groovy gang"
Desert Venturer 3
Leanne, Lisa and me in Winton tuning up the vocal chords ready for singing Oz's REAL national anthem! (will explain in next blog) had it's first members, me, Dicky, Will, Big Dave, Oli and Leanne. I also got chatting with another girl, Lisa, who was really sound and we were gutted when we realised that she was going to be on a different tour than the rest of us.
Travelling along on the unsealed roads made for an interesting, if at times painful, journey but Louie our bus driver knew the route like the back of his hand and was quite happy to drive for miles on the wrong side of the road to make sure we got as smooth a ride as possible - just as well there's practically no traffic! We stopped for a knackering hike through Porcupine Gorge which, because of it's grandeur, has been likened to the Grand Canyon and is sometimes referred to as 'Australia's mini Grand Canyon'. The sandstone had been worn into wondrous wavy shapes giving the whole valley floor a 'soft' feeling. And no, there are no porcupines in the gorge, Louie told us that it's believed that when the Europeans first came to the area they spotted Enchidnas and thought that's what they were. And Oz being Oz
the name just stuck.
After our hike we were all pretty worn out and were relieved when we reached Hughendon where we were staying for the night. Lisa, Leanne and I were quick to snap up a room together and the final bed in it was taken by an older lady from Taiwan, Moon, who quickly freaked us out by hanging her dirty underwear everywhere and insisting that we listen to her play her three different flutes before demonstrating just how flexible she is by doing some yoga positions for us. Definately different!
After an absolutely freezing night in the hostel (I think I've acclimatised to the sun now so cannot handle being cold again!) we were up at 5.30am to hit the road - ugh! We drove for a few hours before stopping at Winton who's claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of "Waltzing Matilda", Australia's much loved anthem. Before I'd left Cairns Jessie had said that it would be about as interesting as standing in a field in Athenry and she was right, especially since everywhere was closed because it was Sunday! When back on the bus Louie played the song to us
Desert Venturer 5
Giving Mary Doll the alky kangaroo her fix of beer! and told us that a few years ago the government had run a poll to find out what song Australians wanted as their national anthem - Waltzing Matilda or Australia Fair. The poll came back with a huge majority voting for Waltzing Matilda but the government decided that the subject matter of the song (a guy steals a sheep for food and then drowns himself when caught by the police) wasn't suitable so went with Australia Fair. Democracy at it's best - why on earth have the poll in the first place?!!
We carried on south, stopping for a bbq lunch then a break at the town of Middleton which has a population of five people. Happening place as you can imagine! The only thing in the town is a pub which is just as well seeing as the next closest was over 80kms away! We headed down through the town of Boulia and stopped at Wirrelyerna Station, an authentic working sheep/cattle station that was to be our home for the night. We had great fun sitting round the camp fire and getting the craic with everyone and playing with the pet kangaroo Mary, who I renamed Mary Doll
Desert Venturer 6
Overlooking the Three Sisters in Tobermory Station - pretty stunning view but not much chance of a beer like in the Three Sisters in Edinburgh! after watching her guzzle beer out of a cup in the best Rab C style!
Our last day was more or less driving all the way - we covered 800kms! We stopped off at Tobermorey station, which is 1.8 MILLION acres. And it's only the fifth or sixth largest station in Australia, incredible! We also passed a load of termite mounds along the way which were hundreds of years old and stopped for pics at one that was over 5 metres high - not bad for a load of insects! We arrived into Alice Springs in the early evening and then a gang of us headed out for pizza before getting to bed early to prepare ourselves for the next bit of our adventure - travelling to Adelaide via Ayers Rock, yeehah!
The next blog will come hot on the heels of this one (when I get round to doing it) so keep your eyes peeled!
p.s. Belated Happy Fathers Day Dad, love you lots and can't wait to see you soon! xx
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