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Published: April 1st 2009
I spent the last 2 days in Tasmania catching up with sleep and packing all my stuff. After 3 months in one place it felt a bit strange to be moving on. I must say thank you once again to Jennii and Jonathan for putting up with me for so long, i really appreciate it.
I left Tasmania early on the 28th knowing that i was meeting my sister the next day and we'd have very little time to squeeze in all the stuff we wanted to do. Arriving in Sydney at around 8am i found a hostel, dumped my belongings and headed straight for the harbour. After experiencing relatively cool weather compared to what i have become used to, i was pleased to find clear skies and temperatures close to 30degrees. I spent the morning being a typical tourist trying to outdo the Japanese with my photo taking of all the main sites. Then i met up with Angela (the German traveller that i went to Port Arthur with) and as she is currently living in Sydney she was able to show me some more places to visit. One of those places was passing through the botanical gardens where we saw hundreds of bats hanging in the trees. That night we went out for drinks with Angela's friend and boyfriend, who turned out to be the first Australian i'd met with a love for football. Good man.
After drinking a little too much i had to get up early and meet my sister at the airport the next morning. I got there at 6.30am and after her landing was delayed by 20minutes, she then seemed to be the last person off the plane. Eventually she appeared with a big beam on her face and we headed back to the city. We basically have 3 weeks to do as much as we can which will involve a lot of travel as we attempt to visit more places than we probably should. Using the knowledge i picked up from Angela the day before i took her to see all the same sights i had seen as well as visiting the aquarium. Emma was probably a bit jet-lagged and i was tired after a few early morning starts so we ended up going to bed at 7.30pm that day.
The next morning would be my third visit to the airport in as many days. We were flying to Alice Springs. Our flight set off at 10am and we arrived at 11.30am due to this area of Australia being 1 and a half hours behind. I'm really struggling to get my head around the timezones at the moment especially when trying to work out the kick off for England's midweek game. Alice Springs was hot. About 36 degrees on arrival and we soon realised we'd need protection from the sun when visiting Ayer's Rock the next day. Unfortunately, leaving it this late we were forced to buy souvenir hats which quite frankly make me look like a bit of a dick. Just a warning for when i put the pictures up. Alice Springs is a strange place, it's designed the same as most Australian towns (blandly) but has nobody in it due to its location. We ate out the first evening and tried out a few bars, ending up in an english pub as is still tradition for me.
A 6.30am coach picked us up the next morning to take us to Uluru. It was roughly a 5 hour trip through the desert and all the people on it were annoying as they were old english holidaymakers who complain about everything. Note to other holidaymakers out there. It will always be hot in Central Australia. Don't complain about it or go somewhere else. I hear France is nice. We did have a good driver in John though who talked us through the journey, providing us with surprisingly interesting facts and stories about what would otherwise soon be a repetitive landscape. A break at a camel farm was also much welcomed although we didn't have time to ride them which would have been fun.
Our initial plan at Uluru was to go on a sunrise tour on camel back but this was cancelled at the last minute. Instead we booked ourselves on the evening Aussie BBQ trip, which involved a BBQ (obviously) and an interesting look and talk about the stars. Our tour company that we have booked everything through have decided that we are a married couple so we have to keep politely reminding them that we are just brother and sister. That evening was spent back at the lodge in the bar but an early night was needed as we set off the next day at 5.45am to go to Ayers Rock for sunrise. It was brilliant to see and i'm pretty sure i took far too many pictures of the same thing. After sunrise was complete we were taken closer to the rock and on a few guided walks to learn about the history of the area and the people that live here. The only downside was the flies. Whilst outside it was impossible to go anywhere without attracting 7 or 8 flies to your face. Everyone just walked around as if they were having a fit, frantically swirling their arms around in an attempt to fend them off.
We are now back at our lodge with a free afternoon for perhaps some swimming but definitely some drinking before the long coach trip back to Alice Springs the next day and then a flight to Melbourne.
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Sarah
non-member comment
hi
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