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Published: August 31st 2007
Well its been ages and as I write I am sad in an internet cafe in Bali writing about what happened in Australia over a month ago - so I thought it was definitely time to catch up! Sorry I have been slack keeping in touch via email with everyone - one of the downfalls of getting addicted to Facebook! but I am going to try and keep up with my blog for these 4 months travelling as I know if I get really behind its just not going to happen!
In addition to the photos that I've uploaded onto here for the travelling around that I did with Ed please also use these links to my albums on facebook for those of you that arent my 'friends'! and there are more on there. I would upload more but I have already sent them home and consequently wiped the cards.
So here you go:
www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=42489&l=e62e7&id=525930555 and
www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=42556&l=37b79&id=525930555
So....Ed got here at the beginning of July to what despite my warnings some awful weather. Whilst I toiled away at work he showed himself round Sydney (the good host that I am) but one thing we did so together, along
with my friends Melissa, Stephen and Paul (hi guys!) was go whale watching. For a certain number of months a year the whales are migrating and come in quite close to the shore and its possible to do a boat trip out of the harbour for half a day to see them. Having been going for quite a while and seeing absolutely zip we were beginning to think we werent going to be in luck - but then 2 of them decided to put on a little show for us and put on a tail slapping display for a good ten minutes - they are amazing creatures and when they came near the boat - even though you know how big they are you cant help but be surprised. I cant take credit for these photos these are melissa's!
The weekend after Ed got here along with my friend Rachel from Sydney and her friend Chris who happened to be over from the UK at the same time, went to the Blue Mountains - a national park a few hours from SYdney - so named for the Blue Haze that comes from the trees there. In July and August
because the weather is so cold, they celebrate Yulesfest - Christmas in July!! Rachel and I having both had hot Christmas's the year before had been looknig forward to roast turkey and Christmas pudding for months! We did manage to fit in a fair amount of walking as you can see from the pictures and as a reward for some of that toiling at work I had been given some spa vouchers which Rachel and I made good use of while the boys watched some Aussie (aka stupid) rules football. On the SAturday night we went to the finest hotel in town dont you know - The Carrington for a Christmas extravaganza of carol singers, Father Christmas, Roast turkey, champers and Christmas hats and a "Merry" time was had by all. The other highlight of our time together in Sydney was going to see the "Barber of Seville" opera at the Opera House. Along with Rachel and Chris we booked the so to speak cheap seats but the lady who showed us to them either felt sorry for us or took a bit of a liking to Chris as we got "upgraded" to some of the best ones in the
house, right in the middle of the stalls. Was very enjoyable if but a little long and Ed only fell asleep once, a record.
Another week in Sydney for me and Ed took himself off to Melbourne where I joined him the following Friday. On arrival in Melbourne we went to see a Pixar exhibition and then I went to meet the people from my work that make up the Melbourne office, for a few drinks that as they had been drinking all day started with a tequila slammer and went rapidly down hill from there. Next day Ed and I were up early as we had to catch a train a few stops to the place where we were picking up the Britz camper van. It was a fab van complete with shower, toilet, cooker, fridge and microwave so it wasnt exactly roughing it (well not until we realised they forgot to put in the bedding that is!). After loading up with food, we headed for the Great Ocean Road, out first destination, Bells Beach - world famous for surfing and where the filmed Point Break. Next stop was the Lighthouse at Aireys Inlet - most people at
home should remember ROund the Twist??? - HAVE YOU EVER.. (please continue in a comment with the rest of the words to show everyone that I am not mad!) then finally to Lorne where we stayed for the night, a very chilled seaside town.
Next morning it was up after the coldest night sleep ever - anyone that thinks Australia is one permanent source of sun is very mistaken. We headed for the Otway Ranges National Park a little off the Great Ocean Road and the Otway Fly - a privately owned park with suspended metal walkways high above the forest floor. the views were fantastic apart from at the top of the tower in the photo here which you could def feel swaying in the wind! Back on the G.O.R for some beautiful scenery - its easy to see why its one of the most famous drives in the world. The Gibson steps and beach was lovely but I was slightly underwhelmed by the 12 Apostles so we planed to come back at sunset for a more spectacular view. A couple more stops for viewing points and photos later we stopped for the night at Port Campbell,a small
town that is mainly used for people visiting the 12 Apostles.
Up away early the next morning in anticipation of a long drive that actually turned out to be quite short. Destination today was the Grampians National Park, so we left the G.O.R behind to head inland. We were staying in Halls Gap which was a small town in the valley of the park, which people use as a base for the walks that you can do. I think this was one of my favourite campsites 1. for the view of the valley walls looming over you and 2. there were so many wild kangaroos around that were quite tame and one even had a joey - CUTE! Next day we did a serious of walks including the 4.2 km round trip to the Pinacles, probably one of the more famous viewpoints inthe Grampians. Walk was little hard going which as I had to keep telling myself was good training for Nepal!), allthough it did take us through a mini version of the Gran Canyon which was pretty impressive. we also visited the Makenzie Falls and a few other lookouts.
Next day it was off again this time
to a small village called Tanunda in the Barossa Valley in South Australia - primarlily famous for its wine. We decided to avoid Adelaide after not hearinf that great things about it apart from its cathedrals and in weighing up the wine against the cathedrals I'm not afraid to say the wine won. Tanunda itself was a cute place and we stocked up on food and booked ourselves on a wine tour for the next day. There turned out to only be 4 if us on the tour which was great - we got to see the sites as well as various wineries of the valley and a very tasty lunch, I think we pretty much manged to buy wine at every place we went including a very tasty (even though it sounds totally wrong) sparkling red. Feeling like the total conosseuirs that we werent I got dropped off in town to visit the Tanununda museum whilst Ed went and slept it off!
Next destination was the FLinders Ranges National Park, this time it was a long drive to Wilpena Pound Resort - the only place you can actually stay within the park. A couple of drinks at the
Poddy Dodgers (isnt that a fanstastic name!) bar and we were ready to crash, in preparation for our hike the next day, for some reason SAlly had thought it was perfectly acceptable to choose a hike that was classified "difficult", not being the world's biggest hiking fan. I'm not quite sure why but it would turn out to be worth it. The next morning after signing ourselves out in a book in case we got lost in the wilderness, off we went and yes 3/4 of the way up I was totally ready to give up and Ed bless him kept me going and the views from the top of the whole of the pound and beyond were worth it.
In the morning we set off for Coober Pedy the opal captial of the World!, whcih makes it sound alot bigger and more impressive than it is! The Stuart Highway that runs through the centre of Australia is one long road through nothing and it certainly wasnt the most interesting drive apart from the big salt lakes on the way. Its hard to describe Coober Pedy - some people have described it as the end of the world and
Anyone spot a similarity?!
sorry Ed I couldn't resist!it does have that feeling - its a dusty ramshackle town that you really wouldnt stay longer than you had to! It was also the first place where I encountered a large number of (and I am sad to say mostly drunk) Aboriginals that mostly just seemed to hang around the town. The follownig day we visited the "Big Winch" lookout and the Old Timers mine where you were able to walk around what had been a working mine (complete with very atttractive miners hats as you can see in the Facebook photos!). I also visited the Umoona mine museum which featured dug out homes - unworldly undeground homes that most of the population of Coober Pedy live in due to the extreme temperatures outside. In the evening we had booked ourselves onto a tour run by the campsite where we were staying to the natural formations a little way out of town called the Breakaways, that were truly truly spectacular, probably one of the most impressive things I have seen in Australia, even anywhere. Again its hard to describe what they were - so please use the links to facebook to see the photos. We also saw the dog
fence -, the longest fence in the world used to keep the dingoes out of the sheep rearing southern states.
Then it was already time to complete the last long leg of our journey to Alice SPrings. The change in temperature was most apparent here as by the time we arrived at the campsite in the mid afternoon it was warm enough for me to sunbathe by the pool, a little different from the ugg boots and fleece jumpers of the G.O.R! The next momring we visited the Cultural Centre and then had to stop in town so I could buy some sumer clothes not anticipating it was going to be so warm! We had planned to have a bit of a chilled day that as you wil have gathered if you are still reading by this point - we had had quite a full on trip so far - so we did a bit of shopping and went the the cinema. Following day we had to make our goodbyes to the campervan :-( then got a taxi back into town and went to the Royal Flying Doctors base and also had lunch there. We also visited the Botanic
Lighthouse at Aireys Inlet
Have you ever, ever felt like this? Stange things happening, are you going round the twist? Gardens which were unlike any other botanic gardens I had ever been to but did afford us some good views of the town. That night we stayed in a hostel in town after dinner at a saloon type restaurant where in Raffles style you could throw the monkey nuts on the floor!
The following morning we started a 2 night, 3 day trip called "The Rock Tour" with 19 other backpackers, and were picked up from our hostel (in the rain I might add) at 6.15AM! We drove all the way to Yulara Resort which was to be our campsite for the night, before we went to see THE Rock aka Uluru aka Ayers Rock. I know this probably sounds stupid but it was so much bigger in real life than the way you imagine it after seeing it in postcards etc. But its very large and very red and very stark on the landscape as apart from the Olgas there is nothing else around! Ed and I opted with a few others to do the 7km base walk which you expected to finish everytime you turned a corner - but it just kept going and going! We also
Our campsite the first night at Lorne
Looks a little bit nicer than it actually was! visited the Cultural Centre which explained about the Amagu (aboriginal people of the area) and there beliefs. Having dinner and watching the sun set over Uluru was very memorable and def a highlight as the rock went from red, to bright red and then finally to black. After a well needed shower we all sat round the campfire before settling down in our surprisingly comfortable and warm swags underneath the stars (well only for s long as I pulled the flap over my head in fear of waking up with a dingoe licking my face!) and managed to have the best night sleep since the beginning of the trip!
Up early the next morning this time to witness Uluru at sunrise - it was sooooo cold! after which Ed got stuck washing up the porridge pan ha ha! After breakfast we headed back to the Rock and did a really interesting walk where we found out the Aboriginal name for it isnt Uluru at all its only that as a white person pointed to it and asked what the name was and the local thought they were pointing to one particular bit - whose name was - you guessed
it - Uluru. From there we went to the Olgas aka Kata Juta a collection of 36 stone domes and in a way more impressive than the Rock. Did the "strenuous" Valley of the Winds walk there - of course the walk was worth it as strenuous things always are! That night we camped out in swags again at Kings Creek station, after collecting our fire wood - in shorts and flip flops whcih in retrospect was not the best choice of attire.
Next day was the last day of the tour and we visited Kings Canyon which was impressiev but perhaps not so much after visiting the other two. We got dropped off after the walk to catch a bus back to Yulara in the afternoon, where we were staying at the 5* Yulara Sails in the Desert hotel, which I was so looking forward to after the swag (as nice as it was!) and very dusty clothes! We had a few minutes to check in before we were off again collected for our sunset Uluru/Kata Tjuta helicopter trip. I had been wanting to go in a helicpoter for ages and it was so worth it, after the
Otway Fly in the Otway Ranges
We climbed to the top pof this was a little scary as it swayed! sky dive I did in NZ it was the best rush! It was a very smooth ride and I was lucky enough to be sat in the front with top to bottom glass - photos are on facebook again. The views were understandably fantasic and the shadow behind Uluru went on for ever.
Back at the hotel Ed and I stuffed ourselves silly with the tasty buffet and relaxed in our own personal spa bath - so needed after the 22km that we had walked over the previous 2 and half days!
Next day early afternoon we caught a flight from Ayers Rock back to Sydney and wanted how the hell we had packed so much in, in 2 weeks! Great trip, great company and a lot of kilometres!
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ever felt like this? something something...are you going round the twist?! sounds fab babe, as always jealous as hell will be sending a big kiss for you with sarah xxx