Blogs from Oceania - page 7875

There are basically two types of tours. The first are the backpackers' tours, as I have already mentioned, which are aimed the young with very little money. They have no frills and tend to be on quite a small scale. Then there are the coach tours, which are aimed at flocks of old fuddy-duddies with stacks of money. Unfortunately, all the backpackers tours to the Western MacDonnell Ranges were fully booked, so I ended up paying through the nose for an AAT Kings coach tour. I was the only one below the age of 80 on the coach! The guide / driver, Scotty, was superb. He spent the whole time cracking jokes and deluging us with an avalanche of knowledge. Anything you want to know about anything in the Outback, he's your man! Most of what ... read more

This is my second visit to Uluru, but first time I was in and out in a day and did not stay for the night (see ). This trip included an overnight stay at the huge resort that has been built from nothing just outside of the National Park. Basically just to service the rock. The full range of incomes and requirements are catered for, from the campsite at one extreme to the $250 a night Sheridan Hotel on the other. I was staying in the Ayers Rock Lodge which was basically one up from the campsite. Given the lack of a shower in Coober Pedy (see ), my first priority was a decent shower and shave, as I had time before our tour left for the Olgas. These are actually much bigger than Ayers Rock, ... read more

I spent one day on another of those mini-bus based back-packer tours, this time round one of South Australia's wine growing regions, the Barossa Valley. This region was originally settled by Germans and the German influences are still very strong (the buses run on time, everyone is well organised and efficient etc. etc.). As well as seeing the area, visiting vine yards, seeing how wine is made etc., there was also the chance for some wine tasting. Oh, and some brandy tasting, and some port tasting, and some sherry tasting, and some champagne tasting. The Australians obviously didn't care that the Spanish and French tend to get a bit stroppy about those names being used elsewhere. Afterwards we also visited a Whispering Wall (although I assume that it's not the one in the bible) which will ... read more

Also before I left Melbourne, I had to check out the street where Neighbours is filmed. It would almost be criminal to leave Melbourne not having seen it. Unlike Eastenders, Neighbours is filmed in a real street where real people live. This street's identity is supposed to be a closely guarded secret as the people who lived there were starting to get fed up with coach loads of people turning up to gorp at their houses. It’s called "Pin Oak Court" by the way. The problem is that it's the most widely known secret in Melbourne and we were even able to get printed directions at the hostel. Pin Oak Court, or Ramsey Street as it is otherwise known, is located in a suburb called Nunawadding on the eastern edge of Melbourne. We needed to catch ... read more

This was actually our second attempt at catching the Buffing Billy, a steam-train that runs from an outer suburb of Melbourne called Belgrave. On the first occasion, Sunday 24 September, we travelled all the way out and missed it by three minutes. It just goes to show that it pays to do a little bit of research before setting off. We went for a 'Devonshire Tea' in a sophisticated local restaurant instead - although it can't have been that sophisticated as they let us in! For our second attempt, we left nothing to chance and after checking out the time-table, we allowed ourselves plenty of time to get there. The scenery between Belgrave and wherever it was that the Puffing Billy went made the journey worthwhile, that is until the weather took a turn for the ... read more