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Published: March 23rd 2007
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Hi everybody! It took us a long time, but finally we get the chance to update our weblog. In our previous entry, we said that we would get back to you after 3000km of driving through the desert. For us Belgians, that is already an enormous distance, but the fact is that we even travelled much more: about 8000km in 16 days! Although we were driving a lot, it was the most fascinating trip we have ever made! Have a look for yourselves.
The best way to travel through Australia is by driving your own car. It is the only way to fully enjoy the landscapes, and it gives you a lot of freedom. On top of that, organized trips are really expensive. A three day trip to Ayers Rock for example costs you about 600 Australian dollars. As we are low budget backpackers, this was no option. So the first thing we had to do was buying our own car. After spending a couple of days locked in our room in Darwin because of the rain, we found the true dream machine: a yellow, cozy and spacious '86 Ford Spectron.
Next, we needed to find a crew
The outback crew
Michelle, Kaori & Kitty (left to right) joined us for this trip. to join the petrol costs and the fun in driving through the outback. We put out some ads at backpacker places and finally three volunteers showed up: Michelle from Canada, Kaori from Japan and Kitty from the Netherlands. The plan was to take our time to drive through the outback, stop wherever we wanted to and keep everything as cheap as possible. That last thing implies some preparations, concerning food for example. As you drive down and get further and further away from civilization, everything obviously gets more expensive. However, what concerns the food, you don't have much choice in what you take along, you have to be able to store it in the heat for many days. Heinz has found the perfect solution to this problem: Heinz Big Eat canned food! After filling the car with these cans and some jerrycans of fuel, we were ready to leave.
The first stop on our trip was Kakadu national park. As we already noted before, it was raining a lot in the Northern Territory around this time, so most hikes and parts of the parks were closed. The only way to fully see the highlights such as the Jim Jim
Falls was by scenic flight, which obviously was way too expensive for us. However, only driving through the park was already amazing, and some nice hikes were still open for the public.
The highlight of our trip through the outback obviously was the most famous landmark of Australia: Ayers rock or Uluru, as the Aboriginals call it. However, the trip itself to this monolite was certainly as rewarding for us. Driving through the deserted red landscape while Elvis, Barry White, Simon and Garfunkel or Abba were entertaining us (we have some brilliant tapes all right), filling up the car and enjoying a well earned beer at the scarce roadhouses every 200km, taking a swim at some beautiful, crocodile free (or at least we hope so) springs, falls or natural lakes, admiring wildlife, going off road with our 2WD and hence getting stuck and having to dig out, enjoying the absolute peace and loneliness, playing golf and camping on little rest areas in the middle of nowhere with only the tent and each others company, and admiring some highlights such as the Devils Marbles, Rainbow Valley, the Olgas, the Breakaways and a little mining city named Coober Pedy,... are amongst
Lemon ant
The green part really tastes like lemon. many of the stunning experiences you get on the average outback trip.
Ayers Rock itself is more then a fascinating, huge stone. As you probably already know, the rock changes color as the sun rises or sets. Standing in front of the biggest stone of the world, you can only feel very humble. We were not able to climb it though, because the rangers close it down as often as possible. This has multiple reasons. Firstly, accidents happen. The rock gets really hot, which causes dehydration in no time. On top of that, the path to the top is very narrow and steep, so even a little breeze can be very dangerous. Secondly, the rock is of great religious importance to the aboriginal people. They are actually offended when people climb it, as this is a holy rite for them. Anyway, the way we feel about it is that there is no need to climb Uluru to experience its impressiveness.
Close to Ayers Rock is Kings Canyon, which in our eyes is equally stunning as Uluru. The hike along the steep edges of the canyon was for us surely the nicest walk we have ever made. In the
Magnetical termites..
..all build their flat termite hills facing east, in order to catch the sun rays and ensure a constant temperature throughout the whole day. middle of the dry canyon, there is an oasis named Edens Garden, a name it truly deserves. From the top, you have an amazing view over the desert. But actually, there is no way of describing the grandeur of Kings Canyon. The only thing we can advise you to do is just go there. It is surely one of the most amazing sceneries one can go to.
Although we didn't wish the trip through the outback to end, arriving in Adelaide was somehow a relief. As we already said before, you really get sick of canned food, so a supermarket suddenly feels like a paradise. Fuel prices are reasonable again, but it is weird to see other people and cars on the streets. Furthermore, Adelaide is the capital of the state South Australia, also called the festival state. At the time we arrived here, the Fringe festival was taking place, which created a very nice atmosphere in the city. All this made it nice to arrive in the civilized world again, but after one day we already missed the outback.
After Adelaide, we headed to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road. More about this part of our road
Edith Falls
Despite the crocodile warnings we had a refreshing swim here. trip in our next entry!
Take care,
Nick and Steven
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Vanas
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Ja thoone, de vrijdag bij barry ben zennen bbq nog een bezwarend filmke over u ontdekt op mijne gsm.. houdt nog maar wa geld over om den blackmail te betalen :-) T ziet er daar anders wel zalig uit.. Wel minder tof als werken in Belgiƫ natuurlijk!