Southern Australia and the Outback

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I have to start this entry with a little discovery I’ve made in my travels (these and prior ones) so as not to appear a wee bit jaded in my adventures and ramblings along. So here it is...cities are great. They are wonderful places to live, to work, to eat, to do business, to party, to shop, to socialize, to raise children but they are not great places to visit (or at least they aren't for me). This is by no fault of the cities themselves...they try...with their museums of the southern railroad crossing through the southern alps of New South Wales and Victoria...they do really try. But they just don't hold your interest for long...now all cities aren't this way. Take London, New York, Rome, San Francisco...these are cities with personalities and a breath and a pulse all their own. These are places worth a visit and a stay but not the Charlotte’s, Melbourne’s or Auckland’s of the world. Again, I am not saying these aren't great places to live and some may even like to visit (to each their own) but I personally find myself doing the things there that I would at home...sitting in a cafe drinking coffee and reading, shopping (window in this case) or using the internet...so if is seems I gloss over these places rather quickly it is because I’ve discovered they are necessities on the way to smaller towns and places where the real adventures start!

So with that…ah, Oz…the land down under. It is truly a vast land. When I arrived I was a bit overwhelmed with the choices of what to do…go for it and try to see it all in 2.5 months, concentrate on the east coast (which is what most backpackers do) or the west…oh the choices…but I decided to go for it all and try to get the whole thing in! When was I going to have this opportunity again? Oh, the best land plans…they started to go a little sideways the second week in and if you miss that one connection to somewhere else then oh you are in a wee bit of trouble…but oh well the fun of travel! So anyway, got to Sydney on a rainy day (yes I was fairly certain it was following me around…all the way from New Zealand then Samoa and now Australia). I immediately really liked Sydney. It had that personality (see above) and I really enjoyed being there…saw the harbor and the bridge, the opera house (both were beautiful), visited the zoo and saw many of the animals that I would be seeing in the wild soon. But it was soon time to move on and I flow to Melbourne…again see above for description of Melbourne (although St. Kilda is a nice little artsy, beach area that is worth a visit if you are ever in the neighborhood). From Melbourne my plan was to catch a bus down the Great Ocean Road (yes that is it’s proper name and I do have to type it that way) but first I made a visit to Phillip Island which is on the Southern Coast of Victoria (the state Melbourne is in) and here they have what they call the Penguin Parade. Every night about 800 little tiny fairy penguins come home from fishing and swimming and dodging sharks all day to make their way up the beach and into their little burrows…quite a cute little bunch of guys waddling up the sand and thinking every seagull is a great big something that is going to eat them…but they finally make it home and sleep for the night...and that was Phillip Island. Then off down the Great Ocean Road to see the beautiful scenery between Melbourne and Adelaide (in South Australia). It was really beautiful but could have been a little nicer (again, that pesky rain). We saw lots of rocks and crashing waves…three days of them in fact…beautiful they were…the 12 Apostles were one of the formations and then the Grotto (no not Hugh’s) and London Bridge (not that one either). We hiked in cool climate rain forests and ran down some big sand dunes but the coolest thing was I saw a koala in the wild with her baby!! Yippee! Check that off the list! Koalas were actually my favorite animal when I was little and every time dad left for a trip I asked him to bring me one (didn’t really matter is he was going to Australia or not, could have been Panama, I just wanted a koala) anyway, after much heartbreak and not understanding why he could not bring me one he finally did manage to get to Australia and bring me back a big stuffed one (but now that I think about it he probably got it at the San Diego zoo or something). Anyway, enough about that, I saw a Koala in the wild up close with her baby!

So after the Koala, the rest of the trip up the Great Ocean Road paled in comparison and I arrived in Adelaide so excited not only about the Koala but about my 10 day camping trip that I was taking through the Outback leaving in 3 days! How awesome does that sound…anyway here's where everything went a little pear shaped…so that trip was postponed until the next week…so here I was stuck in Adelaide (see 1st paragraph for description of Adelaide) for a little over a week so I decided to go to Kangaroo Island for a couple of days. And yes there are lots of kangaroos on Kangaroo Island and Wallabies and more Koalas too…we hiked the national parks and saw some amazing rocks and waves, saw the wildlife (including kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, sea lions, fur seals, echidnas and tiger snakes) and ran up & down some giant sand dunes! Again loads of fun but I’m ready to hit the Outback and go camping! And no, no one is holding a gun to my head to make me say that! So here I go…

Off to the Outback! there is 6 of us that leave Adelaide on a rainy Wednesday morning heading for adventure in the Outback of South Australia and the Northern Territory. Because of the rain our route has to be changed a bit because the roads have been washed out along the normal route but this afforded us the opportunity to get to see the Flinders Ranges up close and Wilma Pound. Both were beautiful and we did a great hike up Mt. Ohlssen Bagge. After the hike we decided on a camping site and unrolled our swags and settled in for the night. Now i bet you are asking what a swag is...well there are no tents on this little trip so basically a swag is a canvas bag that has a thin (very) mattress in it. You place your sleeping bag in the swag and that is where you sleep. Nothing between you and the stars. Oh and if it rains you just pull the swag over your head and go back to sleep. This is also the way you get rid of the pesky flies but more on that later! Anyways, first night over with and done only 9 to go! oh and here's the next best part...we are not camping in camp grounds we are camping on the side of the road, on cattle stations, down side roads, etc...so guess what that means no bathrooms or showers! Before i tell you about the trip itself let me tell you about the Outback...it's HOT, very hot. There are flies everywhere and i mean EVERYWHERE. There is no air conditioning in the Outback. There are no showers in the Outback and there are no toilets in the Outback. And contrary to popular belief there really aren't any bad animals to get you...except for the mostiques.

So about the rest of the trip...later in the week we make it to Iga Warta which is an Aboriginal Community in the Flinders Range. We got to see Ochre pits. Ochre is the rock that they make their paint out of. They used it for body paint for ceremonies and to paint rock painting which we went to see a little later. After going on a bushtucker walk (learning the wild plants that they used for food) we got to make a...boomerang! How cool is that? i made my very own boomerang. And it is really good if i do say so myself. After the boomerang adventure we left Iga Warta to start heading north toward the Northern Territory. Along the way we made some pretty cool stops...we meet an Outback guy called Talc Alf who is a sculptor and also has a very interesting take on the alphabet. very odd man that talc alf. we stopped at Lake Eyre, which is Australia's biggest lake but it is a dry lake so I'm really sure about it...but we did get to walk on it...then we headed to William Creek which is known as the smallest town in Australia with a population of 11. After that we made our way to Coober Peddy, the opal capital of the world. talk about a strange little place...it is so hot there that all the houses are built into sides of the hills. but if you like opals this is the place to be. we then crossed the Dingo Fence...which is a continuous fence that runs all the way from the east coast to Western Australia and was originally built to keep rabbits out of the Northern Territory but is now used to keep the wild dingos (sort of like dogs)out of South Australia and away from all the sheep.
After the Dingo Fence we drive some way to finally make it to Uluru and the the Kata Tjuta. Uluru is also known as Ayers Rock but after it was handed back to the Aboriginal people 20 years ago the name was changed back to it's original name. Anyways, it was beautiful. the first night we were in the area we got to see the sunset over them both. The next day we headed out early to hike around Kata Tjuta and then to watch the sunset against the rock. The next morning we woke before sunrise so we could get to the rock and watch the sunrise over it. Again really spectacular...after that we walked around the base (about 10k) and enjoyed looking at the rock up close. Because the rock is scared to the Aboriginal people they ask that people not climb the rock even though it is allowed by the government. After the rock we took off for Kings Creek Station and a helicopter ride over the station. We made camp that night in another Aboriginal community and got to take advantage of their beautiful water hole for a late afternoon swim. the next morning we woke early and went to Kings Canyon for a hike around the top rim.

After all that i think it is certainly fair to say that i have never been so smelly, sweaty or dirty in my life!! but it is certainly an adventure i will never forget and the 3500 kilometers traveled through the Outback was definitely worth it!!

That's all for now. I'm in Alice Springs now and am heading to Perth tomorrow to go up the West Coast and see all the amazing sites there! I'll keep you posted and thanks for keeping up with me! i look forward to hearing from ya'll!!

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Comments

[J.R.]

I enjoyed your philosophical view on cities and what they have to offer versus the flavor of the small towns that provide the depth and character of a region. What beautiful and picturesque scenery, except for the flies of course (looks like something off Survivor). I got a little choked up with the part about the koala (sniff, sniff), the real one makes the stuffed one look like a bougar now,huh? Camping, sure sounds like fun out there. Camping to me is staying at a crappy hotel at Myrtle Beach with my kid's soccer team. A nice hot shower and a cozy bed never sounded so good I bet. But there will be plenty of time for that upon your return. Be careful with that boomerang. I don't know if you having a boomerang is good for the safety of the group. Sure hope everyone signed their waivers. Enjoy yourself, be careful, and keep us updated. This blog will be a killer keepsake of your time and travels. J