Alice RFD Base, Anzac Hill, Ooraminna Bush Camp

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After the early night last night, I was awake at about 7am. There were children running up and down the stairwell, and I think this may have woken me. It was a restless night’s sleep. There was an air-conditioning cooler in the room but this made a lot of noise. It was a very hot night, so we kept this on all through the night. The people sleeping in the rooms around us must have been really annoyed, though if they had any sense they would have had theirs on all night as well. For my breakfast, I had two mini packs of corn flakes, which I had bought from the camp food store yesterday. It wasn’t the most exotic food I could have had, but it was cheap and filled me up. Had a shower after breakfast, which is by now being the routine thing in the morning. The latest we could stay in the rooms was 9am, but they were not checking up so we had an extra hour or so in the room before we had to take our bags out.

I went for a walk up to the store early on as well, to get some bottled water, while Lance had his shower. By about 10am, I had brought my bag out so the room could be cleaned for the next ‘lucky’ guests. The area where we were supposed to meet up with the ‘Connections’ tour was right next to our room, so it wasn’t too far to go with the heavy baggage. Lance had, as I had mentioned earlier, been on the Connections tour for the entire duration from Darwin down to Alice Springs, so was in fact going the reverse way to my tour. He introduced me to the two tour leaders, Johnny Boyd and Katina Trout, and as the tour was not to start for another four hours, I helped them prepare all the equipment. Sleeping bags, for people who didn’t bring their own, needed to be rolled up tightly so that they would fit into their bags, sleeping bag floor liners to also be rolled up really tightly, so that they clipped together. Katina, the girl tour leader was about 25. She was from Queensland. Johnny originated from Dublin, and he was a bit older, probably about 28 or 29. There was also a couple, who were training to take over from Johnny and Katina when this stage of the tour had finished, up in Darwin. The chap was from Newcastle, near Sydney, and the lady was from Sydney. They were all really easy to get along with.

As the time went on, it eventually got to 2pm, when the rest of the party where due to arrive. Lance had left, a couple of hours earlier, as he needed to get a bus which would take him to Townsville, on the East Coast. This was apparently a 30+-hour journey, and he wasn’t looking forward to it. Anyway, some of the party had now started to arrive. They were all girls. This obviously made me think ‘perhaps this isn’t going to be as bad as I thought’. They introduced themselves to the leaders, and to everyone else that was there. Johnny and the other chap took the coach up to Alice Springs airport, where the tour party had just had their 3-hour flight from Cairns. By the time the coach arrived back, there were about six or seven girls that were to begin their tour. The coach was at the resort until pulled up and the party got out, they were a very loud bunch. The leaders put our bags into the coach hold, along with some other bits and pieces that were needed.

Katina read out everyone’s names to make sure everyone that was supposed to be here was, and that we didn’t have to wait for any stragglers. The leaders introduced themselves to the group and told us a few guidelines they expected from us. They were there to help us, but they were also grateful for any help we could give. It was the attitude that everyone should muck in together, so that the whole party would be able to have a good time. We all agreed.

Once they had located everyone, we all got on the coach. I had the seat next to Riki. He was from Japan. I introduced myself to him, and told him I was from England. A couple of girls sitting next to us, shouted out ‘Where about’s in England are you from? Which county?’ As soon as I said ‘Essex!’ they shouted ‘Oooo! We’ve got ourselves an Essex Boy.’ I think one of the girls was Lisa Villiers. She came from somewhere in North London.

I was also sitting behind a guy called Tim, who was also from England. Bristol in fact! And he was a Spurs fan. I thought ‘Bloody typical. I go 12,000 miles round the world, and into the remote outback, and I meet a flaming Spurs fan!’ Anyway, meeting two English people on the party put my mind at rest. Being totally honest, I thought it would be a nightmare. I didn’t think I’d get on with many people, but it just wasn’t the case.

We left the Heavitree Gap Outback Resort and made our way towards Alice Springs. Alice has a population of about 27,000, and lies 2,930 km from Sydney. To get to Alice from Sydney by road, would take about three solid days of driving. The infrastructure on the outskirts of Alice Spings is fairly basic and economical. It was all that they needed though. We saw only a handful of Aborigines during our first drive.

One thing that I did enjoy was that on all the drives we were going on during the next five days, we could have music on. I got the impression Johnny liked his music. They could play CD’s on the CD player, and Johnny had a wallet of 50 CD’s, which was more than enough for the trips out. The first track they played was a new song. This song would become the song that we will be reminded of our experiences in the Outback. This was a song called ‘Mr E’s Beautiful Blues’ by a group called ‘Eels’. This was a very fitting tune, as the chorus included the sentence ‘God damn right, it’s a beautiful day’.

Our first stop was the Alice Royal Flying Doctor Base. We watched a short film, which showed the history, the equipment that has been used throughout the years, and also describing how important it is to the many people in remote areas that literally depend on these sort of services.

There was also a small working museum there, which shows how the base operates. It still operates from one ‘old-style’ dial telephone, a primitive 70’s looking computer and radio headset. It looked very old-fashioned and could certainly be improved, but I guess there isn’t the finance. Also being exhibited were many artefacts that further show the history of the organisation. Artefacts which included old medical instruments, and medicines, which have long been superseded. There was a small gift shop there, where some of the party bought gifts, but I just settled for yet some more bottled water, and a bite to eat.

On exiting the Flying Doctors Base we noticed some Aborigines. They seemed to be keeping themselves to themselves, and obviously didn’t want to mix with the likes of us!

Our second stop was Anzac Hill. The coach was unable to drive up the steep gradient here, so we had to walk up, which wasn’t too hard. Once up there, we had a 360° view of Alice Springs. The streets criss-crossed in a rectangular web, which hadn’t been noticeable from ground level. Also located on Anzac Hill was a large war memorial.

After taking a couple more snaps, we hastily made our way back to the coach. By now it was about 4.30pm.

We were now going to Ooraminna Bush Camp, which was where we were going to be spending the night bush camping under the stars. William and Mary Hayes were one of the pioneer families of the Alice Springs District, arriving in 1884 with horses and bullock teams loaded with steel telegraph poles to replace the original wooden poles on the OT line. Today, 6 generations later, Bill and Jan Hayes, and their family own and operate Deepwell and Maryvale Stations, and the Ooraminna Bush Camp. It is situated between the MacDonnell Ranges and the Simpson Desert; the Ooraminna Ranges boast magnificent red sandhills, weathered rocky outcrops, and a profusion of plant and wildlife from both areas.

To get to Ooraminna we had to go south-east from Alice. I’m not sure which road we were taking but it wasn’t tarmac, and was a very bumpy dangerous track. I got the impression it wasn’t built for coaches to drive on. It was also very dusty and dry. From the moment we started on this track, we were being jolted around quite heavily. Now I know why they put seat belts in coaches! The landscape was the same for miles upon miles. Deep red dusty dirt covered the whole area, with the odd clump of bush for good measure. As we were travelling I felt that the coach was really struggling to manoeuvre in this terrain. On odd occasions we were passed by four-wheel-drives which obviously had no problem, as they kicked up the dust behind them. As were became more and more cut off from the civilised road surface, we saw many shells of old cars that had obviously been ragged till their untimely death. The landscape was very inhospitable, and this was the first of many signs. After about an hour on this road, we made it to the bush camp.

This was a culture shock. We had all had it easy on our holidays before this and now we were seeing another side to Australia. We all got out of the coach and surveyed the ‘camp’. The camp was let’s say, very basic. There was a clearing, which was to be where we put up our tents. A short walk through the bush and we would find our toiletry hut. It wasn’t quite ‘hole in the ground’ but it was only one step from it. They were plumbed-in toilets, and there was running water but that was where the luxuries stopped. There was only cold water, and the male toilets backed on the female. This meant that you could here anything happening next door.

There was only one more building in this settlement, and this was about 6ft by 6ft! This was ‘the bar’. A wood shelter adjoined it, which was open at all sides. The roof was made from branches and twigs. We could see spider webs which obviously told us there was some wildlife out there, but not the sort of wildlife we should want.

Once we had surveyed the area, and the tour leaders had unloaded the coach, we had to put up our tents. We got into pairings: I was with Ivan, who was quite a loud but amusing person. He was from Switzerland, and spoke pretty good English. He works in Switzerland for Ericsson.

These types of tents were supposedly easier to put up, than normal camping tents. Once it had been unfolded and pegged to the ground, you had to climb inside it and prop it up with one tube, and fix it into another tube which had a spring and allowed the whole fixed tube to hold up the tent. This meant that it wouldn’t fall down easily if the wind picked up. Again, the red dirt was getting everywhere. It was then that I realised it wasn’t a good move bringing just white trainers! It took about ten minutes to put the tent up, and then we helped some of the girls next to us, who were struggling. Once everyone had done their tents it was by now 5pm.

Some of the group then went on an optional extra, which was a ‘bush walk’, followed by champagne. Only a handful of the party went on this, and the rest were allowed to ‘chill’. Some of us when on a little walk. As we were driving into the bush camp we passed what Johnny had said was an ‘old movie set’. This intrigued me, so I wanted to take a closer look. I walked there with Tim, the English chap, and we were chatting about football. He’d been with the tour, two weeks previous, and hadn’t had the chance to see any of the recent Spurs results, so I duly informed him of them.

The ‘movie set’ wasn’t really much to write home about. There were two or three small building shells with nothing inside, obviously only used from the exterior. Also in and around these buildings were a large covered area, with what looked a large empty pool area which was lower than floor level. It was dry and dusty and hadn’t been used for a long time. It didn’t take long to look round, as there wasn’t really a great deal there - just a few old pieces of wooden furniture. It was something to do though, while we waited for the others to come back.

We made our way back to base, and sat in the covered shelter by the small bar area, and out of the shade. There were some of the others sitting at wooden tables, and they were having a few drinks and taking it easy. The sun was beginning to set; though it was still warm, and a cool breeze was starting to blow. I had a nice cool ‘tinny’: Victoria Bitter I think. It was very refreshing to say the least. They had a limited choice of beers, but to be honest we’d drink whatever they had.

Once I’d got my drink, I sat down with some of the others and we begin to chat about our holidays and what we do back in our native countries. Most of the people were Dutch. We introduced ourselves, and we all spoke in English, which I didn’t expect the Dutch to be so fluent in. Edwin came back with his camcorder, and showed us what he’d seen on his little excursion out: a 2ft bright green snake. However, he’d zoomed in real close and filled the entire video screen with this snake, to make it look much bigger than it really was. About half an hour had passed before the rest of the party came back from their bush walk and ‘glass of champagne’; though judging by the noise of them coming back they must have had a bottle each. A couple of the girls came back very merry indeed, and it was obvious they’d had more than their fair share of champagne. Now everyone was back, Edwin started showing everyone else the green snake he’d captured on video. Some of the girls fell for it, and believed it was a really big snake, and had immediately rushed off the tents to close the flaps and make sure they didn’t spend the night with it! As they returned, he reassured them saying he’d zoomed in real close and this put their minds at rest. Once they’d all got settled, we could smell dinner being prepared. We didn’t know what to expect, as it was being cooked for us. It ended up being a lamb stew and potatoes, which was surprisingly really nice. Many of us had seconds as well, that’s how nice the food was, also with all the day’s goings on, we had built up a big appetite. The drink was also beginning to flow as well after dinner, and everyone began to feel relaxed as the night drew in. Once the sun had set, it grew colder. The lighting we had was beginning to attract the mosquitoes, which wasn’t good news. The lights were hanging from the roof of the shelter and this illuminated the many spider webs in the framework. This reminded us that there were spiders around; something I personally hadn’t thought about. As the evening went on the party dwindled. It had probably been a long day for many of them, due to having the flight that same day. I was one of the luckier ones and had had the time to adjust to the surroundings. We were told we have an early start ahead of us in the morning, but that didn’t deter us. It ended with a hardcore of about seven of us that stayed up till about 11. This doesn’t sound late but many of the others had turned in much earlier - some as early as 9pm. If I remember rightly the group consisted of Katrina, Jacqueline, Tijanka, Ivan, Tim, Arjon and Anne-Marie.

After a while, Johnny and Ian (the two bloke tour leaders) who had also stayed up hit the sack, so it was decided that perhaps we should all turn in. It was only a short walk through the dark to our tents, and I really should have brought a flash light with me, but didn’t so I had to go back with Ivan, as I had to share the tent with him. By now, I was getting tired and it was the right time to turn in.

I had an alright sleep, though I woke up a couple of times due to Ivan’s snoring. Annoying, when you have the only person of the group that snored, sharing your tent. It was a cold night, which is a common thing - blistering hot days and chilly nights, but once you’re in the sleeping bag you don’t feel it.

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