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Published: March 30th 2006
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The Ghan
The train so good it has its own theme tune that i'm still trying to get out of my head "to experience the legend of the Ghan.." ARRGGHH!! Hey guys
Sorry its been a while but i have just been so busy over the last week that i haven't had a chance to sit down let alone write one of these but i'm here now and its better late than never eh!!
ok so where the heck do i start? Well last Friday I said goodbye to the Farnams and hopped on a very long train journey through the middle of Oz. I was on a train called the Ghan (named after the Afghan camels they used to build it - fountain of knowledge me!) that would take me up to a little place called Alice Springs. The train was a great way to travel and see the landscape of outback Australia so i'm really glad i did it although it did take 20 hours, was as uncomfortable as an aeroplane with a toilet flush 10x worse - i'm not kidding guys you could lose some internal organs if you flushed while sitting down!!! I'm getting off the point a little so I'll stop talking about the loos. The food was okay but i was glad that i had packed some food with me - those jelly babies kept
The Todd River
You're not a local until you have seen the Todd run three times - one down... me going!
Anyway we finally arrived into Alice Springs at about 1 o'clock Saturday afternoon. Luckily the hostel i was staying at picked me up so there was no hassle trying to find the place. The hostel was really nice, good rooms (4 share), nice little pool (though a tad cold) and great people. The owner, Jo, was hilarious - complete and total nutcase.
Once i'd dumped my bag and claimed my bunk i headed off into town to sample the delights of Alice Springs. It didn't take long. I'm not kidding this town is tiny considering it has a population of about 28,000!! It's mind-boggling as an English city girl to think that people actually live in places like this. The nearest town isn't two minutes away it's two days away! It is also one of the many towns in Australia that boasts a river. Its just none of them have any water in them. In Alice they have the Todd River and every year they hold the Henley-on-Todd Regatta. Its a huge boat race where people build bottomless boats and run down the dry river bed - would love to have seen that but unfortuantely Saturday night it
The Rock
It Rocks! Geddit?! rained and by Sunday morning the Todd was flowing.
The whole point of stopping in Alice was of course to go and see a big rock, Uluru (Ayers Rock). I had a trip booked for Sunday that would fit it all in in one day. Its a common misconecption that Uluru is right next to Alice but actually its a few hundred kilometres away, like 4 and 1/2 hours worth of kilometres away! So that meant an early start. Luckily one of the other girls in my room was doing the same trip so we both dragged ourselves out of bed at 5.30 and hopped on the Emu Run Coach. It was a big coach but there were ten of us in total so we had plenty of room to spread out. The two drivers, Tic and Alex, were insane and wouldn't stop feeding us. When we got on it was breakfast packs, then it was sweets, then it was cheese and biscuits, then fruit, then more sweets, and then lunch packs - well you get the idea. They told us loads of stuff along the way and it didn't feel like we had been on the road very long
Tired? Me?
This is Trine as we were discussing our ascent or lack of one before our first stop, Mount Connor Lookout. Mt Connor is a monolith like Uluru but with a flat top. Unfortuantely the people who own the cattle station that Mt Connor is on dont allow people to get close to it so you have to make do with the lookout. It was still a pretty spectacular view and gave us a good chance to stretch our legs.
Back on the coach for another couple of hours and we got our first glimpse of it. Now i've seen plenty of pictures of Uluru but nothing compares to seeing it for real. We were all stunned into silence on the coach (even tic and believe me that is a big deal) so you can imagine our surprise when we just drove straight past it. They were taking us to see Kata Tjutu first. Kata Tjutu or the Olgas as they are known is a group of monoliths made from some kind of rock that i cant remember the name of but it is different to Uluru. We walked into on of the chasms between the rocks and ate a few flies. Yes the flies were unbelieveable up there - you couldn't open your
Uluru
The view from half way up - Thats the Olgas you can see on the horizon mouth for swallowing one. Yep those people with the fly nets over their hats didnt look so stupid now!
Anyway the Olgas were nice but were a little bit of an anti-climax cause we were all eager to get back to Uluru. When we finally did we had the decision - to climb or not to climb? The Aborigines ask you not to as it is a sacred site but i figured how often do you get a chance like this? So me, Trine (the girl i was sharing a room with) and Peter (a Scottish guy) set of on our treck while the rest of the group did a base walk. They have installed a metal railing on a section of the rock to make it easier for people to climb so nieve little me thought hey it will be easy, the railing will help me. The second i set my first foot on the rock i knew i was wrong. It was so steep! When we got to the section with the rail i realised it wasn't there so you could steady yourself, it was there so you could pull yourself up. There i was literally dragging myself
Rock Art
Some ancient Aboriginal art up the side of a rock in 35 degree heat (they close the climb if it reaches 36). Peter had disappeared over the top while me and trine sat huffing and puffing podering whether it was worth it!! We decided it wasn't - we had got about half and had some great pictures but it was just so hard we couldnt do anymore. Although now we had the problem of getting down. The answer to that problem was on my bum! Yes Uluru was one big slide to me. The rock was red hot and it burnt my hands but i just couldn't stand and walk for fear of my life (current death toll at the rock- 38, i didn't want to make it 39 thank you very much).
We got to the bottom just in time to get a very cold drink from the coach and catch up with the others on the walk. I'm glad we did cause that was really interesting. Then it was off to Sunset Boulevard to watch the sunset, drink champagne and eat Crayfish - tough this backpacking lark!
Monday was a pretty chilled day, just sorted myself out ready to get back on
the train. This time it was a 24 hour journey so i wasn't really looking forward to it until i got on and quickly realised that no-one was sitting next to me - yay stretch out!! So i did. Entertained myself reading and sleeping mostly so that was good. We stopped of in Katherine for four hours, which is an even smaller town than Alice. Nothing was open so i just found a cafe to get some brekkie and waste some time. The cafe was empty except for one other guy. We got talking when we realised we were both on the Ghan and bored in Katherine. Had another stroke of luck when i found out that he had his car on the train and since i had no idea how i was gonna get from the station into Darwin City Centre, he kindly offered me a lift - result!
So now here i am in Darwin. I'm staying with Gemma (Pams niece) right in the middle of town in a place called Mitchell Street although they should probably re-name it bar street!! Gemma runs a pub and a nightclub so i just hung out there my first night and
Litchfield Park
Just one of the waterfalls i swam in got to meet all her friends. A few of them offered to take me to Litchfield National Park (One of the trips i was planning anyway) so thats what i did yesterday. Litchfield Park is about an hour and a half outside of Darwin and its beautiful. Lots of springs and waterfalls and thankfully no crocodiles! So we just spent the day swimming in the rockpools and under the waterfalls and it was fantastic.
So i guess that brings us up to date pretty much. Sorry its a bit of a long one but i wanna keep you all well informed!
Speak Soon!! x
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