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Published: February 8th 2007
One step beyond.....!!!!!
God knows where this was taken!!Well I managed to survive the 10 day trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs travelling in the back of a four-wheel drive jeep...just! What an adventure. I saw some of the most amazing landscapes I've ever seen, I visited some of the weirdest towns I'm ever going to go to, and I formed some friendships with a great bunch of travelling companions.
First stop after Tassie was Adelaide. I was only there for two and a half days, and didn't really get a chance to do it justice. It was a nice town though based around the River Turrens, with the main thoroughfare King William Street running through the centre of town and the large pedestrianised Rundle Mall meeting any retail therapy requirements you may have. I spent a nice afternoon strolling around the large Art Gallery of South Australia, followed by a visit to the Don Bradman Museum, full of memorabilia from the great man's playing days. There was a nice statue of of The Don outside the Adelaide Oval cricket stadium, where I watched another pear-shaped performance by the poms the following day. They were obviously worried about the number of people who would want to watch a
game between England and New Zealand - tickets were only 20 bucks each to sit anywhere in the ground - that's about 7 quid (about 10 times cheaper than a one day game in England!). Another very picturesque ground though, and I met a very nice Kiwi supporter called Trish at the game who has offered to take me on a guided tour of Dunedin when I get to NZ! We went out afterwards with "The Beige Brigade" - name given to the Kiwi fans because of the awful 70s style beige cricket shirts they wear - a good time was had.
I went out the next evening with my friends from Cambodia, Helen and Michael. We were meant to meet in Sydney but managed to miss each other, so it was a bizarre coincidence when I bumped into them by chance in Adelaide. They had just driven from Melbourne along the great ocean road, and were staying in Adelaide for a few days before heading to Perth. It was great to see them both again and have a catch up - the last time we had said goodbye to each other was in The Foreign Correspondents Club in
Phnom Penh - that seemed like a lifetime ago already! They were both off to find work in Sydney after Perth as teachers for 6 months, so we are not going to see each other again on this trip, but I hope we can keep in touch.
The following day I got picked up for the start of my outback adventure. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but a converted jeep with 8 people squeezed in the back towing a huge trailer was certainly different! I said my hellos to everyone and jumped in the front seat beside the driver, thankful for the legroom! After a quick introductory chat at the Heading Bush offices (yes I know - great name), we were on our way. I got a chance to chat to the other people on the trip once we were on the road. Severine and Martin were a married couple from Switzerland on their holidays, Gabi from Switzerland, Nena from Germany and Sophia from Sweden were three girls who had been learning English at a school in Sydney, Chris and Svenya were two friends from Germany who were back-packing around Oz, Patrick was another German who had
just finished working in a banana farm in Queensland, and Hugh was our bushman/outback driver who had to look after us for the next 10 days!
After a few hours driving the landscape gradually began to change, as houses, shops and factories made way for barren desert, rocky hills and the occassional petrol station. Hugh explained that we'd be camping out in swags every night around a campfire, and we all had to muck in with collecting firewood, cooking the food and washing the pots. It was definitely one of those trips where everybody will have to muck in - it had the feel of "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here" - 10 random strangers thrown together for 10 days - the only difference being no-one was going to get voted off! We were told of the dangers, including heat fatigue, dehydration and snakes(!), and that our travel insurance should cover any flying doctor call outs because we'd be nowhere near a hospital!
Our route would very much depend on how many roads were still closed as a result of the flash floods the area had been experiencing recently. Hugh mentioned that the last group were
stuck in an aboriginal homestead called Iga Warta for 5 days, having to eat home-cooked freshly killed kangaroo as they ran out of their own food! Apparantly they cook the whole animal for 2 hours, and then serve it still covered in fur and oozing blood! Yuck!
After a while we stopped at a water hole full of brown coloured water, with a tree hanging across it and a rope hanging down. "Right" said Hugh, "Who's up for a swim?" The girls all pulled faces as if to say "You can't expect us to swim in that!", but he was serious! We all reluctantly put our swimmers on and headed for the rope swing. I must say though after all my rope swing exploits in Laos and Thailand I had no hesitation of being first to have a go! It was great fun. Despite looking dirty, the water was good and very refreshing to jump into after being stuck in the jeep for 3 hours.
The first night was spent in the foothills of the Flinders Ranges, glowing red and purple folds of huge mountains that went on for as far as the eye could see. Many of
the art galleries I'd visited in Australia contain pictures depicting the Flinders Ranges, and after seeing them for myself I can see why so many artists were inspired to paint them. They really are awesome, and photographs don't really do them justice. It was certainly novel setting up camp for the first night. For those of you unfamiliar with swags, they are almost like a shell sleeping bag, made of waterproof suede and a big hood you can pull over you if it rains. They have a thin mattress inside them, and you put your sleeping bag inside your swag for extra comfort. Once we'd "made our beds", we prepared dinner (some very tasty stir-fried noodles with chicken) and ate around the campfire as the sun went down over the mountains. We all got chatting over a few beers afterwards, and it was nice to hear other people's travel stories around the warm glow of an open fire.
The following day we visited Wilpena Pound, a large natural basin with sloping hills and a high ridge surrounding it. Very impressive and a great place for photos. We were lucky that it wasn't too hot early in the trip -
the temperatures had settled around the mid-thirties, and despite being bloody hot by English standards, it was quite mild for the area we were in. Another long drive followed to Iga Warta, the aboriginal place I mentioned earlier. It's basically an educational centre for tourists, where you go to find out a little about the aboriginal culture. Obviously it's well recorded regarding the rough time they had when white settlers first came to their land. Nowdays there are large swarths of South Australian and Northern Territory land that have been handed back to the Aboriginal people. Hugh was a bit cynical about the whole experience. "The bit at the ochre mine you'll do tomorrow is alright, but tonight they'll just have you round the campfire singing stupid songs" he said. "They do one called "All you need is love" which is particularly painful - he always gets people to sing it in their own language too - it's bloody awful mate".
By the time we got to Iga Warta it was quite late and the locals already seemed pretty tipsy on the local brew. A few of us went over for a chat while others got the dinner ready.
Uluru at dawn
It's very orange! They seemed a nice enough bunch, and one the guys (called Sean funnily enough) said that even though it was too late for campfire songs we should come and join them for a drink after dinner. Everyone was a bit apprehensive about going over to join our hosts after Hugh's advice, but I felt that it would be rude not to pop over for half an hour after being invited. I went with a couple of the girls in our group - Nena and Svenya from Germany, and Sophia from Sweden. Patrick came over too, leaving the rest behind. We sat round a big table with around six of the locals, including Sean who was strumming his guitar. Sitting next to Terrence, the guy that runs the project was certainly a bit strange - I've never met anyone so serious! I asked him about the project and what they were hoping to achieve. He said "The best way of answering that is with a song. We need understanding and peace in the world today, but most of all....we need love". With that he grabbed the guitar and went into the really naff song that Hugh had warned us about -
not the Beatles version - that would have been bearable - but this happy clappy ditty that went "All we need is love, all we need is love, all we need is love, to live in peace and harmony". We all looked at each other trying to keep straight faces. "Right love - you blondie" Terrence said pointing at Nena, "Where are you from?". "Germany" she replied flushing with embarrassment."Right - I want you to sing it in German"he said. Poor Nena went bright red as she tried to sing along with Terrences strumming, "Alle, die Sie benötigen, ist Liebe...". It took all my strength to stop the giggles that were welling up inside me as Nena had to sing the whole song. Next Terence did the same thing with Sophia, asking her to sing his song in Swedish. "Sorry it won't fit" she blurted out, trying sound convincing. "Come on have a go" he said, looking even more serious. "The Swedish words don't fit into the song though" she explained. In the end she made a brave attempt trying valiantly to sing "All du behov är älska", but that just made me lose it and double up with laughter,
At Uluru with the gang
"Tallest at the fromt please!" along with Patrick. Terrence wasn't impressed! It was a fun night though, and after one more cringy song from Terence, I managed to get everyone up to sing "American Pie", which seemed a lot more popular!
The next day Terence took us to an Ochre mine and performed an aboriginal ceremony on us, daubing our faces with ochre, chalk, and anything else he could find lying on the ground! It was interesting though to see how the aboriginals used different substances to create their paints, and Terence also gave us a bit more information about the local Adnyamathanha community and their beliefs.
Next stop was Lake Eyre, a huge dried up salt lake in middle of the desert. Going out on it was like walking on the moon - it was certainly one of the strangest landscapes I'd ever seen. The dried up lake had formed in plates of salt on the surface, with thick crusts jutting out of the ground where the plates merged. Underneath was a thick layer of black sludge, full of razor sharp shards of salt crystals. Poor Chris managed to put his foot through the surface, knee deep into this sludge and cut
his leg to ribbons. You certainly had to be careful where you walked. I managed to get some great photos though, especially as the sun set over the salt.
There was some serious driving being done between all these places we were visiting - all in we would be driving over 2,000 km. Some of the towns we were stopping at for lunch or to stretch our legs were so isolated and desolate it was beyond me how anyone could live there. The Oodnadatta Track we were travelling on was like something out of one of those road movies - just one long dirt track going through the middle of the desert! I've never seen "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" but apparently a lot of the towns we stopped at were in the movie. Places like Laura, Marree, and Williams Creek looked deserted, and when we stopped to buy drinks or ice-creams, any shopkeeper we came across seemed elated to see another human being! Williams Creek had a big sign up saying "Welcome to Williams Creek - Population 2"! We had a drink in the Williams Creek Hotel run by a guy called Norman - he had nobody staying
there when we visited. It looked like a great bar though with lots of character, many photos on the wall and a lot of memorablia - apparently January is a quiet month!
We next stopped at Coober Pedy, one of the most bizarre towns I've ever visited. It's the opal mining capital of Australia, and driving towards the town there are hundreds of "mole hills" of earth and rock made from the excavated mines. There are over 250,000 mine shafts in Coober Pedy, so you have to be careful where you step! Coober Pedy translated from Aborigine literally means "white man's hole in the ground" - which is not suprising since 70% of the population live in caves! It can get hot during the day here (well over 50 degrees) and freezing at night, so the people here decided to blow holes in the rocks and live in them. They are very presentably done though, with front doors, bathrooms and kitchens. On our tour around one cave we were told that the biggest "house" in Coober Pedy is a seven bedroom "luxury"cave, complete with indoor swimming pool and jacuzzi! It's easy enough to build an extension though - just
go down to the local hardward store, pick up some dynamite, and go home to blow another hole in your cave! The other strange thing is because there is such an abundance of opal, any holes blown in the rock could expose a rich seam of opal and make you a rich man instantly. And get this - you are not permitted to sell your cave for more than you bought it for! So you could happily live there for 20 years decide to move out and only get something like 5000 bucks for your efforts!
I was hard work travelling in the jeep. We took it in turns to sit in the front seat alongside Hugh - normally the one suffering most with sun stroke got the nod! The other eight of us were crammed in the back, getting very hot and sweaty. We didn't have air-conditioning, so to cool us down Hugh supplied us all with water-sprayers. There were two settings on the sprayers - gentle mist mode and "all out warfare mode"
Another long drive through Oodnadatta (another strange town with a roadhouse where EVERYTHING was painted pink!) and Marla ended with us staying in
a really remote spot on the edge of the Painted Desert. By this stage the flies were getting annoying. The further north we went the more flies appeared, and now it was getting difficult to eat your food without at least one fly getting in your mouth during lunch or dinner. I'm pleased I invested in a fly net before I left, even though I forget I had it on on one occassion and ended up trying to take a bite of peanut butter on toast through my net! We had a good game of football at our desert campsite though, with the Swiss/English alliance defeating the Germans 5-2 before it got too dark to see the ball. Pleased it didn't go to penalties anyway!
There was another huge 400km drive the following day to Yulura, the Ayers Rock (Uluru) resort. It was a hot day when we visited the rock. Because it was over 40 degrees the rock climb was closed for safety reasons, so we did a 10km walk around the base instead. I've got to say it's one of the most memorable sights I have seen so far on my trip - this huge orange rock
sitting in the middle of the desert under a cloudless deep blue sky. 3.6km long and 348m high (AND two thirds of it are underground!), it really takes the breath away. Walking around the rock, Hugh pointed out the many shapes that have naturally formed in the red sandstone, including "The Brain" and "Mick Jagger's lips"! You'll have to see the photos to see if you agree. It was ridiculously hot though, and despite taking 3 litres of water with us for the walk, lots of sunblock, and our big floppy sunhats, some of us in the group were struggling.
We got back to the resort in the evening for a much needed swim in the pool to cool down, and after 5 minutes in the water, Svenya came down with dehydration sickness. We wrapped her in cold towels, gave her a large electrolyte drink and whizzed her off to the nearby hospital. Luckily she didn't require a drip and an overnight stay there, but it brought home to all of the dangers of dehydration and heat fatigue.
We next day we went to The Olgas - another collection of large red sandstone rocks not far from Uluru.
It was hard work walking again on the Valley of the Winds track. Even though it was just 7.4km this time, the climbs up and down the steep rocks in the blazing hot sun were very tiring. Again, the large group of rounded rocks were an impressive sight, and offset with the blue sky made for great photographs. When we got back there was a big sign barring entrance to the walk saying "Track closed due to extreme temperatures" - now they tell us!!!
The next day we drove to Kings Canyon, one of the most spectacular sights in Central Australia, with 100 metre high walls of sheer red rock. The views along the 6km walk we did were simply amazing, and the rock formations made you feel like you were on another planet. It was windy there though as well as bloody hot, so any "edge of the cliff" poses for the camera were done with utmost care!
I found Uluru, The Olgas and Kings Canyon all awesome places - I felt myself taking a step back on at least one occassion and thinking "I can't believe I'm here". These red barren landscapes under a blisteringly hot
sun were certainly a long way from South East London in January.
Hugh decided to take it easy with us for the last two days of the trip after three days of hard walking in furnace-like heat. We spent our time around the McDonnell Ranges, another picturesque group of mountains. We stayed near Glen Helen on our last night in the bush, a lovely spot with the Davenport River running about 50 metres from our camp - perfect for a midnight swim. Hugh gave us the bad news that we were running low on beer - Big Pat and I decided to go on a mission to the nearby hotel/bar/shop/garage (yes - all one place!) to get fresh supplies. A brisk 2km walk to Glen Helen hotel/bar/shop/garage was followed by disaster - no alcohol can be sold as "take outs" - we had to drink it on the premises! Pat and I looked at our watches - "We've got around one and a half hours before the sun goes down" he said. "Right" I replied, "What are you drinking?" We managed to get through quite a few Tooheys New beers, whilst having a laugh with the locals. We even
played pool against a couple of German lads who were staying on a nearby campsite. During one game the white ball bounced off the table and out of the back door. I retrieved the ball and looked up to a glorious sunset over nearby Mount Sonder and the McDonnell Ranges. "You don't get views like this when the white ball flies of the table in The Earl of Wakefield at West Ham" I thought. We finished off our mini drinking session with a Jaeger Bomb. I had to thank my aussie friend from London, Karla for introducing these to me - baileys and jaegermeister in the same glass and down in one! Great fun but bloody lethal (I think I did three at my work leaving party)! We staggered back to great derision from our group asking where all the beer was - we explained what happened and said we should all go back for more Jaeger Bombs after dinner! Luckily one of the girls had found a box of sauvignon blanc in the back of the jeep they had forgotten about, so that kept everyone going well into the night. By the time everyone ran into the water for
a night swim, we had all had enough to drink anyway!
Over the nest couple of days, we went to a lot of water holes, creeks and gorges to swim and cool down. The scenery at all of them was gorgeous again, ranging from Ellery Creek with it's sheer granite rock faces plunging down into deep green water, to the massive Ormiston Gorge, with a huge slab of overhanging rock offering shelter from the sun. It was just nice to spend time relaxing and enjoying the cool fresh water.
We ended our trip in Alice Springs, which I must say isn't the nicest place I have ever visited. Lots of aborigines staggering around the high street clenching brown paper bags full of god knows what (glue? meths?), and bars full of mean looking blokes with bald heads and ZZ-Top style beards. It seemed to be real red-neck country and a place where people ended up rather than being there out of choice. Alice relies heavily on the tourist trade and people using the town as a base to explore Uluru and the rest, but since Uluru now has it's own airport, people are now avoiding Alice altogether. I
was only there for two days, maybe I shouldn't judge it too quickly, but it seemed to me like a town dying on it's feet.
We did have a fun final night though at the Bojangles bar on the main street. As it was our last night together we really went for it, and managed to carry on partying until 3 in the morning, which was quite good considering we'd been on the go since 6am! We spent the night dancing really badly, pulling funny faces for photographs and taking the mickey out of the locals - all a bit silly but it was nice just to let our hair down.
I was very lucky to be travelling with such a great bunch. Most of them were years younger than me (I think Chris, Pat, Svenya, Gabi, Sophia and Nena were all only 20), but we ended up gelling together well and having a great time. They were all great people. Severine and Martin, being the only couple, would set up their swag bags away from everyone else at camp for a bit of canoodling, and were christianed "Club Romance" for the whole trip. Nena was totally blond,
and had only come into the outback with two pairs of shoes - pointy shoes with heels, and pointy shoes with no heels - I think her blisters had blisters after 10 days! Svenya and Sophia liked to be entertained with my stories of India around the campfire - whenever there was a lull in conversation, it was "go on - tell us another funny India story!!"
It was sad to say goodbye to everyone the following day. The past 10 days had been a real experience, and I hope I can keep in touch with at least some of the people I met on the trip. I flew out of Alice to Sydney, for a manic few days of seeing people before flying to New Zealand. I caught up with Ben and Liz one last time (we went to a brilliant restaurant called Kingsleys in Woolomooloo - amazing mud-crab!), had a quick coffee with Alex (he was in the middle of tricky contract negotiation, so it was quick!), and met up with some friends of my friend Anne from my old job, Wendy, Tamsin and Greg, at a trendy place called Bungalow 8 in Darling Harbour. All a
bit rushed at the end but it was good to see people one last time before I left Sydney.
Now I've arrived in Auckland, and am getting ready for another set of experiences. Haven't had a chance for a proper explore yet but it looks like a cool city. My mate Karen is coming over from London on Saturday for a three week break - and I'm busy now trying to sort out an itinery before she gets here!! Hmmm....here can I buy The Lord of the Rings trilogy?!
Bye!!!!
Sean
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Gazza
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The Ginger Streaker!!
Hi mate, your trip seems to be just getting better and better each time i read your blogs, and making me even more and more jealous everytime!! Anyway, glad your having a fantastic time. I must say the Ginger Streaker story had be in stitches, but will now haunt me for life!! Take care mate, Gaz