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Published: January 31st 2009
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Wow...so much is happened I don't know where to begin. I only left Melbourne 3 days ago and caught a flight to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) via Sydney. I spent just over 2 weeks in Melbourne and as in my last entry that included a road trip on the Great Ocean Road. After that, I kept my feet firmly planted in and around the city. This included a trip to Port Arlington (the mussel capital of Victoria) with my friend Karen. Mussels were eaten on a beautiful hot sunny day and fun was had by all involved. We had planned to drive over to Queenscliff, but got distracted in St Leonard by the Federer match; he was down 2 sets to 0 at the time, but came back to win it (what a genius!).
Australia Day (26th Jan) was spent in the city. Leanne and I visited the Eureka Tower, which is now the tallest building in Melbourne so serves as the obsevation tower (previously the Rialto). The observation deck is on the 88th floor and treats you to some awesome city views. I would say it pisses all over Sydney's view from the tower. The Eureka tower also has something
Sporting a lovely flynet
Believe me, I needed it! called 'The Edge', which is a box room on the 88th flr which slides out of the building and is completely made of glass. Once there are enough people in the room, it slowly slides away from the building and the glass stays frosted. Then all of a sudden there are loud disturbing crackling noises and the frosted glass suddenly turns clear all over. I was really scared at first since I'm not the biggest fan of heights, but in a moment overcome with bravery chose to stand at the furthest point away from the building. Once the glass went clear I was uncharacteristically calm. Lying down on the glas facing 88 floors down was pretty damn cool. It was a brilliant experience, but only lasted about 10 minutes.
For my last 2 days in Melbourne I booked a studio apartment on Little Bourke Street just down from China Town and across from Parliament House which is in the theatre district. It was nice to have some time to myself and get lost in the city to explore. I couldn't help but have a flutter at the Crowne casino and won a fair amount which is always a treat.
The climb path on Uluru (Ayers Rock)
I don't know why they still let people climb. The Aboriginals ask you not to because it's a sacred path, but the National Park still allows it. Ridiculous! I also met up with Carly and Will who I first met back in October when I was in Krabi Town. We had tried to meet up a couple of times since then; once in Malaysia in the Perhentian islands, but I arrived the day they left and once in Bali, but my plans didn't pan out. I met them in the evening for drinks on Chapel Street, which is apparently where all the rich and famous spend their hard earned cashola. Their friends Rod and Jared who live there joined us for a drink too and when we got sick of spending money we went back to their place and continued drinking on their balcony. I finally made my way back to my apartment around 3am and sorted myself for checking out the following day. I was out and about by 10am in the morning feeling hungover, shattered and melting in the 40 degree heat.
On Thursday morning I was up bright and early to catch my flight from Melbourne to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) via Sydney. As soon as I got to the Ayer's Rock resort (the only place to stay in Uluru) I checked in and got
chatting to some of the girls in my 20 bed dorm and arranged to hire a care with Ilaria (from Italy) for the following day. I spent the rest of the day chilling out in the pool with Jane (from Bedford) and in the hostel bar listening to the live music. The guy (Rick Barron) was really talented so I bought his CD and got him to sign it for me.
Ilaria and I picked up our hire car on Friday morning and drove straight to the National Park desperate to get an up close glimpse of Uluru (Ayer's Rock). It's stunning beyond belief, especially when you're standing right at the bottom and the magnitude of how big this single piece of rock is hits you. There are several 'walk' options around Ayer's Rock and The Olgas, but we were feeling up for a challenge and decided to do the one very few people bother with...the base walk around The Rock. 9.4km all in all, which on average should take about 2.5 hours. We started in high spirits, stopping every couple of minutes to take photos. It was friggin hot when we started (about 39 degrees) early in the
morning, but it didn't effect us too badly at first because there were plenty of shelters to take regular breaks. After about an hour and a half we had reached the half way mark and the flies were out in droves. Our fly nets weren't effective at all in keeping them away and it became impossible to stop for a drink of water unless you wanted a thick layer of flies all over your face. At 11am the sun was getting to it's highest so there was no shade at all and for some reason there were no more shelters from the half way point. My legs were like lead and the heat pushed me to the point where I thought I was going to spontaneously combust. I was still in pretty high spirits though; just happy to be doing the base walk in such an amazing place....that was until the dizziness started to set in and the litres of water I had brought with me had turned as hot as if poured directly from a kettle. I applied layer after layer of SPF 45 suncream but it just felt futile. There was no way I wasn't going to burn
walking in that intense direct sunlight for so long. The last 20 minutes were torture, but we had no choice but to plug on. All I could think about was getting back to the car and cranking up the aircon. We finally made it back to the car around 1pm and I proceeded to 'collapse' into the drivers seat. It took us 2 hours and 45 minutes. I entertained the idea of doing another walk at The Olgas for all of 2 seconds and then quickly decided I didn't have the energy to do it. We spent the rest of the day driving around the various viewpoints and watching the sunset at Ayer's Rock. Looking back that was definitely the most physically challenging thing I have had to do so far on my travels; it wasn't so much the distance as it was the heat (we later found out it reached 42 degrees), lack of wind and shade and those blasted flies! Nevertheless, I am so incredibly happy I did it and I can now say I am in that hand full of people around the world who have completed the base walk. Woohoo!!!! Sufficed to say I slept like a log that night.
This morning I checked out of the hostel at the Ayer's Rock resort and caught my transfer to the airport. I was happy to say goodbye to the outback flies. The flight was 2.5 hours direct to Cairns and although it was a short time I felt like it lasted way too long. I was in a window seat next to these 2 American girls whose speaking voice was barely softer than a yell and whose choice of subject was at first comedic, but quickly turned annoying...'Steve's cousin's sister's friend's neighbour said that Joe is really hot!', 'I have a porno in my bag!', 'I want to get laid tonight!'. SERIOUSLY...it was non stop like that for 2.5 hours and I couldn't block out the noise since my i-pod broke when I was in Uluru. Great timing!
I am in Cairns now and it's pissing down with rain, but to be honest it's a welcome change. I will be venturing out tonight to meet Jane who travelled here from Uluru yesterday. No doubt we will be fairly intoxicated in a couple of hours.
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