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Published: April 24th 2007
Cairns
Our hostel bar. Tuesday 10th April - Wednesday 11th April
From one small town to another……..today we caught our penultimate greyhound bus to Mission Beach, a small coastal town just south of Cairns. The plan was to stay here for two nights using the time to relax before hitting the busier city of Cairns and its party scene.
Unfortunately for us the weather over these two days was not ideal, remaining pretty overcast and damp for the duration. What is more, the beach here was a little disappointing compared to others we had encountered along the coast but understandably so as this town had been hit by a cyclone the previous Summer and the beach had still not recovered.
I think all three of us will agree that Mission Beach will be most remembered for its first night, a very relaxing evening. We started the night in our quaint little hostel playing cards with our Irish friends and finished the night slightly “merrier” accompanying our friend Dave on his guitar, singing Irish folk songs and old Beetle classics.
Thursday 12th March - Monday 16th April
Early this morning we caught our last ever greyhound bus in the pouring rain from Mission Beach
Cairns
Night out with Izzy and Becky in Woolshed. to Cairns. Cairns was to be our last stop on the East Coast of Australia. It was a kind of “end of the road” for all those backpackers traveling South - North up the coast. As a result we knew there would be a fair few “good byes” to be said over the next few days.
Arriving at our hostel mid-afternoon we were greeted by two very familiar faces - Izzy and Becky - two old school friends who we knew were going to be in Cairns and luckily had booked to stay in the same hostel as us.
Our hostel seemed to have a nice buzz about it. It was probably the biggest hostel we had stayed in on the East Coast and was clearly very popular with travellers our age. Checking in, we spotted a lot of familiar faces, all people we had met along the coast at some stage and like us, were spending their last few days on the East Coast here in Cairns.
The afternoon was given over to a big “girlie” catch up with Izzy and Becky finding out what they had been up to in Oz and sharing each others travelling stories to
The Outback
Sitting round the camp fire. date! We carried the laughs on into the evening as we explored what Cairns had to offer in terms of nightlife. After spending some time in Rhinos Bar, taking advantage of the free champagne - being “ladies night”- we hit Woolshed!! This was a well-known watering hole with the backpackers where we danced the night away.
Although Cairns is the place on the East Coast of Australia renound for offering its visitors the opportunity for doing a spot of diving on its barrier reef, we decided as a three to save our diving experience for Fiji and Thailand. Although slightly disappointed, some backpacking friends who had been out to the reef while in Cairns had returned with negative reports, saying that the poor weather (that was set to continue during our stay), gave rise to poor visibility in the waters. The diving in Asia is meant to be just as, if not more, spectacular and cheaper! Definitely something to look forward to and at least we can say we saw the reef at the Whitsundays.
Highlights of our five days in Cairns include a Sunday afternoon BBQ by the town’s local lagoon. This was clearly a popular place
Uluru
The girls of the Rock Tour + Nathan with the locals. A group of us from the hostel couldn’t resist making the most of a sunny day by clubbing together, buying a mix of meat and heading down to the public grills to relax in the afternoon sun. While Kim and Micky enjoyed their first taste of Kangaroo Steaks on the barbie, Sarah took advantage of a spare ticket up to Cape Tribulation. This was a spot North of Cairns, said to be the point where coral meets rainforest.
Cairns was definitely a memorable place as it marked the end of our East Coast experience. Leaving the city we all had mixed emotions as we were sad to be ending another section of our travels, however at the same time very excited about what was to come……..The Outback.
As we sat on our plane heading into the Northern Territory we were all eager to begin our time in Alice Springs and start our “Rock Tour”. We knew that our time in Central Australia was going to be a complete contrast to that of the East Coast and would be a great opportunity to see the “real Australia”……..we couldn’t wait!!
It was an early start the
The Outback
Attempting to cope with the flies!!! first morning, setting off on the tour bus at 6am. We travelled a fair distance before stopping, which gave us a chance to get to know our tour group and our tour leader, Nathan. First destination was Kings Canyon for a three hour walk through the sandstone domes of the lost city. Imagine walking through semi-arid desert land, in 35 degrees heat, up steep hills with hundreds of flies landing all over you. Hard work is an under-statement. The first stage of the walk took us up what was known as “Heart-Attack Hill” - it’s a pretty good descriptive name really. Nathan was so insistent on us taking at least a litre and a half of water and we soon understood why after gasping for breath and sweating buckets in the first five minutes.
We visited the amphitheatre and the North and South walls of the Canyon before thoroughly enjoying a swim and cool down in the Garden of Eden, a water hole down within the canyon. The views from the top of the canyon were amazing. We were standing in the middle of nowhere looking over miles of red desert land. It was, however, difficult to stand still
Alice Springs
The last night of The Rock Tour in a real Aussie pub for too long without fifty flies landing on you, so we tried to keep moving. Our tour guide impressed us with his knowledge of the outback and despite throwing some passing comments about how Oz is better than the UK and not liking the poms, he made the walk very enjoyable. The walk became easier as we went on, and as the afternoon was passing, the flies were becoming less, so the “Aussie Salute” wasn’t as continuous. Hot and exhausted we made it back to the bus and travelled on to Curtin Springs where we set up bush camp. This time we really were literally in the middle of nowhere with no facilities whatsoever. Half of the group went off and collected fire wood while the others, including us girls, began preparing food, chopping vegetables and making the bread. We cooked the stew on the bonfire and spent the rest of the evening sitting around chatting and drinking.
That night we were sleeping on the ground in what were called swags. This involved sleeping with your sleeping bag, inside another big sleeping bag, which has a small inbuilt mattress. They are really quite warm and cosy. Being in the
Kata Tjuta
Mid-Trek....and evidently very unfit! desert, although its very hot in the day time, the temperature drops to about 5 degrees at night, so its freezing! We went to sleep under billions of stars. It really was amazing.
The next morning was not so amazing as we had to wake up at 6am again. We had breakfast and headed to The Valley of the Winds at Kata Tjuta for yet another three hour walk. Although the longest walk, the views were more impressive than those at Kings Canyon.
After lunch we did our final walk of the day - the 2km MALA walk at the base of Uluru (Ayres Rock). Up close and personal the rock was extremely impressive-really deep red rock with lush green vegetation below and perfect blue sky above made for great photos. Numerous stops were had along the walk where Nathan told us a little more about the Aboriginal Culture and showed us where certain ceremonies and rituals took place.
Before heading back to camp we went to the sun set point where we had dinner and beer whilst watching the sunset over Uluru and witnessing the slight change of colour of the rock as it did so.
Back
Mission Beach
Entertaining night in hostel at camp we started the fire and sat around it chatting over a few drinks. We also had the pleasure of trying a barbequed kangaroo tail - tastes like lamb! We then settled again under the millions of stars in our swags.
Yet another early start on the last day of our tour - 5am. This was in order to catch the sunrising behind Uluru. We personally thought that this was more impressive that the sun set. From here we completed the 7km base walk around the rock while our tour guide caught 40 winks in the bus in preparation for the 5 hour journey back to Alice Springs.
That evening, back in Alice, the group got together for our final meal of the trip and a proper night out on the town. We saw the night in at 'Bowjangles', an extremely cool bar/club done out in a hill billy western style e.g. shutters for doors etc. It was a great night full of dancing.
All in all we had a fantastic tour which was really made by our brilliant guide and group. It was also lovely to learn that we had been one of Nathans favourite groups since he has started guiding in the centre of Oz.
Saturday 21st April:
Today we were to start yet another tour taking us from Alice Springs to Adelaide down the long straight road that joins the two places together - the Stuart Highway. This meant another early morning so after having about 3 hours sleep we stumbled onto the bus bleery eyed and went straight back to sleep!
This tour was more about getting us from A to B so therefore not doing a huge amount inbetween. We had numerous comfort stops along the way and at about 5pm arrived in our destination for the night. The small Opal mining town of Cooper Pedy.
Here we had a guided tour around the mines and also an underground home. It was really interesting to be told that about 80% of the towns population live in such houses to escape the extreme heat of the summer day time and the freezing cold of the winter nights. We then ate pizza for dinner in a local family run restaurant before getting an early night in our very own underground dormitories.
Sunday 22nd April:
We woke this morning at 5am - hopefully our last early morning for a few days - to hop on the bus and start our final leg of the journey. Our only real stop on the way to Adelaide, apart from breakie and lunch, was at the Salt Lake - a lake which appears to be filled with water but actually is just a sheet of salt which makes this optical illusion.
On arriving in Adelaide at 6.30pm we were greeted by Hamish's (a Bedford School gappie from about 2 years ago) Mum (Sally) and Dad (John). We are staying with them for 3 days before paying Ben Noske (yet another gappie) a visit for our remaining 2 days. Although we have absolutely loved the backpacking scene we are greatly looking forward to a few days back in a family atmosphere with all the home comforts we miss. We are also very grateful to both families for offering to have us.
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Mattie
non-member comment
I have no idea where you all get your energy from! x