Goodbye to the Motorhead Motor Home and back to Sydney

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27th May Goodbye Motorhead Motor Home

That morning we had the task of packing up, restoring the motor home to its former glory, giving away various bits and bobs to fellow campers and making up a big carrier bag of food to give to the Aboriginal people at the riverside in Alice.

When we pulled up at the parking area none of the locals were in sight so we left the food near a bench for them in the hopes it would be of some use. Howard went up to the bank to see if anything could be done about the £250 the ATM had not given us but had taken out of our account, he came back with the news that they said they couldn’t do anything and it would have to be sorted out with our bank in England – marvellous!

Anyway we returned our MH, passed the inspection, had a final survivors’ photo taken with it and then got a taxi minibus to the airport. Everything was on time, check in was a very casual affair – when the woman at the next counter plonked a parcel down and announced someone had given her it to carry on and could it go as hand luggage Debbie and I nearly choked, but the bloke on the desk just said yeah no worries!! Only in Australia!!

So to sum up our adventure……. It was an experience! Sydney was fantastic, 6000 kilometres in 2 weeks is a ‘bloody long way’, 6 in a motor home is a squeeze, 5 in a motor home is still a squeeze, the only kangaroos I saw were dead ones, I never saw a koala which I was gutted about but I did see a dingo and 2 emus, sitting in the back of a motor home you don’t see anything, being in a motor home transforms even the clumsiest person into an expert fielder worthy of a place on the England cricket team!, Bikie Wars is fab, you can walk right round Uluru without dying, Australia is full of assorted birds, the people are lovely, they don’t sell real beer, the night sky is amazing, they don’t have pints, they don’t have real pubs, everything is very expensive, there are loads of McDonald’s, the white Australians generally didn’t seem to have a good word to say about the Aboriginal people, the Aborigines we met were all really nice, the coastline is beautiful, driving 1000s of miles is like a man with a handle winding the scenery round, I can survive 2 weeks with no sleep and living off microwave box meals and it helps when you are with people who like playing cards and singing songs!

So for Deb, Howard, Rob and Matt all I can say is…………

‘The Ace of Spades, The Ace of Spades, Maybe It’s because I’m a Londoner, When ‘im cleaning windows’

And for Stacy……

‘Yer jokin’ aren’t yer!!!!’



Hmmmm right back to the blog…..

We arrived at the domestic terminal in Sydney and grabbed the bags and headed for the trains, said what turned out to be a very sudden and quick good bye and went off on our separate ways. Perhaps that was the best way to do it!

Howard and I arrived at Kings Cross and soon found our d*lux hostel, very basic, on the 7th floor and stains all over the carpet, ah well back to travelling reality it is!

The whole of the Kings Cross area is full of ‘adult’ bars, sex shops and kebab shops! With a large quantity of dodgy and colourful characters thrown in for good measure. We found a normal pub and had steak for tea!! Despite the paper in Alice saying Bikie Wars was on tonight we discovered it wasn’t on until the next day and so we would miss it, struuuuuth is all I can say.

29th May ’12 Sydney to the Kingdom of Tonga

Our flight wasn’t until late in the afternoon so we checked out and left our bags in the store and found a café for breakfast – mmm mmmm bacon, egg, tomato and toast not bad at all. We then went for a walk around the area and saw yet more of life’s oddballs, it then poured down with rain and we ended up in McDonalds yet again! But the McFlurry’s were good and the wifi worked, so flights were booked and emails caught up with.

Then we were on the shuttle bus to the airport which gave us a 30 minute tour of the hostels in the back streets of Kings Cross before finally getting to the airport. Amazingly enough the drop off was right outside the check in desk we needed which was a stroke of luck, we had cut the timing fine so we had no hanging about, just checked in and went through. I spotted a Pandora shop and just thought I would have a look but when I discovered they had a kangaroo with a joey charm and it was less than half the price of the ones at home I succumbed!- At last a kangaroo!! Again by an amazing coincidence we had just that amount of Australian dollars left, with one over for a portion of chips!!

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Photos

Back at Alice Springs
The end of the great adventure!

Alice Springs
Bo Jangles Saloon

Alice Springs
House Rules

Alice Springs
Matt and Rob go for a ride

Alice Springs
Anyone need any food?

Alice Springs
Goodbye Motorhead Motor Home

Sydney
Back to reality - Kings Cross