Blogs from Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 316

They boarded a flight to Alice Springs, intrigued as to what the Red Centre brings, from dreamtime stories, a culture treat, to drunk Aboriginals roaming the street. Didn’t stay for too long but up for some fun, they found novel ways to see the sun, they watched it set astride a camel’s hump, then rise in a balloon ride, touched down with a bump. They took a camping tour to Uluru, that’s Ayers Rock to me & you, Kings Canyon and The Olgas completed the tour, walked for hours, made their muscles sore. Slept under the stars wrapped up in a swag, on top of an ant’s nest - jeez what a dag! Ate damper bread cooked on the campfire, their joke repertoire was pretty dire. ... read more

I saw Darwin as an ideal starting point for my trip around Australia, bearing in mind that May until October is the dry season when there is little or no rain and temperatures peak at 32C. From November to April, temperatures average 33C with high relative humidity and heavy rainfall (406mm of rainfall in January). This makes access to many of the territories natural wonders very difficult as the access roads are buried under water! After insuring and registering a 4WD van for the year, Michael (a Swiss backpacker) and myself would leave Darwin for the township of Katherine taking in a trio of major attractions en route. I had met Michael in the Chillis backpackers in Darwin (www.chillis.com.au) were he had been looking for a companion to do a two day canoeing trip ... read more

A rare lay-in this morning, till 7:30am, which was gratefully needed by all after two really early starts in a row. We had time to all have our showers, pack our things and have a decent breakfast: cereal, and some exotic fruits. Today was a special day; it was Jacqueline’s twenty-ninth birthday. We sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her while on the coach. Today, our destination was the King’s Canyon Outback Resort. It was a long journey there, which took in more of the Lasseter and Stuart Highway’s. We had another couple of stops on the way, at the same roadhouses as before. Also during the journey we watched some ‘topical’ video. It was a film about a group of English down-and-outs, who owe serious money. One of them goes a telly dating show, and wins a ... read more

My watch alarm was set for 5am, yes five in the morning. After a heavy night, that’s all we wanted. Anyway, they were aiming to the bush camp by about 6am, which left an hour to get dressed, have breakfast and dismantle our lovely tent. There were some tired eyes I can tell you that morning. Some of the others were already up, dressed and having breakfast. Anyway, I stumbled out of the tent and got dressed. I was up earlier than most people, solely because I wanted to make sure I had the chance to get dressed properly. I didn’t fancy having a shower there as it didn’t look to clean. Once dressed and packed I left my bag by the coach on the tarpaulin, and got some breakfast: some bran-type cereal and a mug ... read more

Up at 5:15am. Have wash, breakfast and leave for the Kingston-Smith International airport at 6:15am with Bryan. Arrived at the airport with twenty minutes or so spare, which was ideal. As it was an internal flight, my flight took off from the domestic terminal, whic was different to the one I’d arrived at when I first landed in ‘Oz’. I had a short wait to get through check-in, but other than that I had no problems. I didn’t have to go through the stringent checks I’d experienced at Bangkok. It was a good flight, and didn’t seem to take long, although it was a three-hour flight. The only bad thing was that I had no one to talk to, as the two passengers I had sitting next to me were German. Not that I wouldn’t talk ... read more