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Published: February 26th 2011
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Bit of a wasted day today!. As we had to checkout of the hotel at 10:00, but were not being picked up until 15:15. So not really a lot of time to do too much in Alice Springs.
After two days of getting up at 04:00, it was time for a long lie-in. We didn't get up until around 08:00. After yet again sorting out our suitcase we went for a late breakfast in the hotel. When we had finished breakfast, we went to find out check-out time, it was at this stage we found out it was 10:00. As it was already 10:00, we managed to negotiate an extra hour, any more than that and they wanted another A$60 - not very accommodating.
We went back to our room and quickly packed, checked out and stored our luggage and went down to the pool to wile away about 4 hours. It was about 33 degrees, so the idea of exploring Alice Springs was not very appealing, especially as the hotel could not offer showering and changing facilities and would therefore have to travel in our "sweaty" clothes.
We took up position by the pool. Di reading her book and me
catching up with my Blog. After a couple of cool beers and a bottle of Chardonnay the time soon past. We were picked up on time by our driver. On the way to the airport, he discussed the problems that they have with the indigenous population, something that we had witnessed the previous evening.
We had been told that Alice was crying out for workers and that you could get a job within a couple of hours of arriving, this was confirmed by our driver who asked us if we were looking for jobs!!
(I have learnt a few things about Australia on my travels. Firstly the average Australian is not constantly throwing prawns on the barbie!!. The people are not the brash Australians that are portrayed in the UK, but tend to be extremely helpful and friendly
And secondly relative to the geography. I had a preconception of Australia as one big flat plain
with Ayers Rock stuck up in the middle. But in this area there are number of hills and ranges that we never seem to hear about. Also there is a diversity in climate and land from desert to green subtropics - As I will
find out in Cairns.)
We arrived at Alice Springs airport in good time. It was a beautiful modern airport, but was completely deserted. I noted that there were only three flights on the board for that day. Needless to say the check-in was quite painless (We have had no problems or queues with any check-in whilst in Australia- unlike in Europe!!)
We have some time to kill so we get a beer and sit outside, again sitting on a patio outside an airport terminal is now something unheard of in Europe.
Our flight is called early, the airport is now beginning to fill-up, but is still far from being crowded. We take off ten minutes early (again something unheard of in Europe). It is a good flight and takes about 2 hours and 10 mins, and we change our watches forward by 30 mins. The flight is without problems, apart from a few bumps a on our approach to Cairns.
We arrived at Cairns to torrential rain, and the information that 50 mm of rain in the last 24 hours. We picked up our luggage and our driver turns up to tell us it is about a one hour drive up to Port Douglas. We set off up the coast road (The Captain Cooke Highway). The driver pointed out points of interest along the way, but all we can see is pitch black!.
We arrived at Peppers Beach Club at Port Douglas and check -in. We are shown to our room in the pouring rain. It's been a long day so we turned in, hoping that the rain might relent in the morning!
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