So I finally made it to backpacker central - Sydney. On every street in the CBD there are backpackers hostels and lost looking gap year types. I am staying in the Kings Cross area which is is just south of the botanical gardens and about 10 minutes walk from circular quay and the Opera house. the area itself used to be a red light district (and still has that certain seedy feel) but is now really a travellers haven with some very cheap hostels - ok to stay at with a friend but I wouldn't come here on my own!
On my first day in Sydney I walked down to the Rocks area (just by the harbour bridge), explored the Circular Quay, harbour bridge and then went to teh Opera house and botanical gardens. The rocks used to be the Italian and Irish immigrants area and used to be full of mafia type gangs that ruled that area of the city. The place now has a covent garden feel to it with street markets on teh weekends and 'posh' alternative shops selling expensive tea, interesting books and boutique clothes shops. The whole area is in the shadow of the harbour bridge and the pylons rise out of the gardens - apparently the pylons (granite towers at each corner of hte bridge) were an after thought and don't really have a useful engineering function other than to make the bridge more pretty as the early commissioners of the bridge wanted something that would be a tourist attraction.
After lunch in the Rocks I climbed one of the pylons for Birdseye views of the city - although my original plan was to climb the bridge itself I decided that $170+ was too expensive for view that I could get for free! Once high up it is amazing to seee how much of the city is actually in contact with some form of water. the whole harbor area is huge and stretches for quite a way inland - i suspect some of the suburbs around the nothern edge of the harbour would be really quite nice (ther were definitely some huge houses!) It is also interesting to note from the vantage point how large the Sydney CBD is and how unlike the other Australian cities I've visited the city seems to have no real center - more lots of little 'villages' each with a different feel (More like some of hte big European cities). It is also the first Aussie city that its uncomfortable to walk round entirely on foot!
Onwards to Circular Quay which stretches from the bridge to the opera house - a stretch of nice restaurants and ice cream bars - dominated at eh moment by a huge cruise ship (Millennium) docked on the western edge and the opera house on the other side. This is where most of the Sydney ferries depart from and where most of the tourists seem to congregate while getting their bearings of the city. After the obligatory opera house steps photo and purchasing a ticket for a concert that evening we walked on through the botanical gardens and then up the main shopping streets back to the central station. The Botanical gardens are beautiful a really nice place to relax. It being a Saturday we also encountered 9 weddings in the grounds of hte garden - a little exhibitionist but a lovely spot... the gardens is also home to an area of trees filled with bats - no idea about the story behind this but its kinda cool.
After much fusing and swapping of tickets with fellow travellers I managed to secure myself a seat for the 'Beyond Beethoven' concert by the Sydney Symphony in teh main concert hall of the Opera house. Inside the opera house is actually quite nice although it has a very 70's -tastic feel to it (think stained pine and brown leather). The hall itself is just huge - and the acoustics weren't too bad. The program consisted of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 1 with the piano solo played by Paul Lewis (who had a very Brendel feel to him and was very very good), then Haydens Symphony no 67 and Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. The orchestra (except for a very out of tune brass section) were really very good so quite an enjoyable evening - although I wasn't able to convince Karen that a classical concert was a good way to spend the evening!
After my dose of culture I went to the Side bar to get a fix of a very different tpe of music! The Side bar is one of the big backpackers bars in Sydney - full of English and German backpackers (and Australian men who have heard that backpackers are easy prey!) i was amazed at how many people seem to spend their entire travelling time drinking away their nights and sleeping through the days only coming out when the money gets low and they need to find a job. Also amazed at how some girls packs obviously contained more shoes and dresses than anything else! Karens term 'Flashpacker' describes them very well...
The next day I caught the ferry to Manly and enjoyed the views of the harbour from the boat. Manly is quite a cute seaside suburb with a lovely surfing beach - the waves were too large for swimming but I quite enjoyed watching the surfers!
So now having covered Beethoven and bars I move onto blackouts! Yesterday afternoon while waiting for some photos to print (I am printing photos of my family and scenes to help with my teaching in Nepal - the bottle is ON the table etc etc) all the power went out - everything from hte Air con to the traffic lights outside. Curious I went outside and looked up and it appeared that the whole cities power had failed. After 15 mins of waiting i accepted defeat for the photos and started to walk home - actually quite perilous with no traffic lights working! 2 hours later the lights came back on. Amazing the Aussies didn't seem to mind and used the time to leave work early and go for a beer by candle light! (I wonder if the same attitude would hold if the whole of central London blacked out ?!?) It transpires that there was a fault in one cable coming into the city as that failed it took out the other 3 cables. Quite amusing that 1 day after earth hour when everyone was urged to turn off their lights for 1 hour a fault turns off the entire city for 2 hours!
Oh well today is my last day in Sydney - i am heading to Bondi and doing the bondi to Cudgee beach walk and then sorting out all the admin stuff for the next stage of my trip. I suspect i wont access the internet in Bangkok (where I go for 3 days) so my next update will come from Nepal...
Monday, 30 March 2009
Saturday, 28 March 2009
New Photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/philippagraceroberts/AustraliaPart2?authkey=Gv1sRgCI-3vtixzJ_kmAE# Part 2 of the Aussie photos :)
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
End of Blue Mountains - to the Hunter valley
I left the Blue Mountains Wednesday morning (5am !) with Karen a girl who had been staying in the hostel. The last couple of days in the Blue mountains were really good. the last night in the Blue mountains the owner of the farm threw a leaving BBQ for me and another WWOOFer as well as offering me a permanent position (not sure giving up England for the life of a cow girl is really too sensible - but strangely tempting!)
The train down from teh Blue Mountains was really pretty, we had a fantastic view of the sun rising over the mountains and then saw some of the Sydney sky line bathed in a glorious orange. Unfortunately the early hour of my waking meant that the coach journey up the the Hunter was lost to sleep... Upon arriving at the hostel we had just enough time to drop off our bags and get a cup of tea before setting out for a tour of the local wineries. We started at the Draytons family winery which is the oldest the the Hunter Valley (and used to fill the whole valley before it was split up amongst various family members). The Cellar door is quite famous due to an explosion in 2008 which killed 2 people and blew the whole front of hte property off when someone welding one of the fermentation vats didn't account for an excess of gas given off during the process. the property has now been repaired but it still had that new paint smell... The Hunter Valley is mainly famous for the its semmilon grapes as well as some chardonnays (red wines do grow here but apparently not as well), so we tasted lots of lovely white wines and a couple of really nice sparkling ones. Next stop was the Lindemans/Rosemount winery (one of the big Australian exporters to the UK) - I wasn't expecting much as these brands in the UK are not always that great - however the none-export stuff was actually quite nice! We visited a further 2 wineries and then a cheese factory (bought some lovely soft blue cheese : ) before heading back to the hostel.
The original plan was to stay the night and then go back to Sydney Thursday morning - however I am still here! Wednesday night we met a lot of glider pilots who had come up to fly in the Hunter valley at Cessnock airfield. One of the boys was flying P2 on Thursday and after a quick look at my log book he offered me his glider to fly a lead and follow. So yesterday I had a beautiful flight over the hunter valley and soaring the edge of the western mountains before landing out about 20km from home (220km flown) in a rain storm! I was however able to land in a vineyard which is an experience to remember... The retrieve took quite awhile as everyone except the 2 seater had landed out. All in all it was quite a good flight and some lovely views.
Today I will catch the coach back to Sydney, but will probably hire a bike in the morning as the views are lovely and the coach doesn't leave until 4:45.
The train down from teh Blue Mountains was really pretty, we had a fantastic view of the sun rising over the mountains and then saw some of the Sydney sky line bathed in a glorious orange. Unfortunately the early hour of my waking meant that the coach journey up the the Hunter was lost to sleep... Upon arriving at the hostel we had just enough time to drop off our bags and get a cup of tea before setting out for a tour of the local wineries. We started at the Draytons family winery which is the oldest the the Hunter Valley (and used to fill the whole valley before it was split up amongst various family members). The Cellar door is quite famous due to an explosion in 2008 which killed 2 people and blew the whole front of hte property off when someone welding one of the fermentation vats didn't account for an excess of gas given off during the process. the property has now been repaired but it still had that new paint smell... The Hunter Valley is mainly famous for the its semmilon grapes as well as some chardonnays (red wines do grow here but apparently not as well), so we tasted lots of lovely white wines and a couple of really nice sparkling ones. Next stop was the Lindemans/Rosemount winery (one of the big Australian exporters to the UK) - I wasn't expecting much as these brands in the UK are not always that great - however the none-export stuff was actually quite nice! We visited a further 2 wineries and then a cheese factory (bought some lovely soft blue cheese : ) before heading back to the hostel.
The original plan was to stay the night and then go back to Sydney Thursday morning - however I am still here! Wednesday night we met a lot of glider pilots who had come up to fly in the Hunter valley at Cessnock airfield. One of the boys was flying P2 on Thursday and after a quick look at my log book he offered me his glider to fly a lead and follow. So yesterday I had a beautiful flight over the hunter valley and soaring the edge of the western mountains before landing out about 20km from home (220km flown) in a rain storm! I was however able to land in a vineyard which is an experience to remember... The retrieve took quite awhile as everyone except the 2 seater had landed out. All in all it was quite a good flight and some lovely views.
Today I will catch the coach back to Sydney, but will probably hire a bike in the morning as the views are lovely and the coach doesn't leave until 4:45.
Friday, 20 March 2009
Blue Mountain Fun
I caught the train up to the Katoomba in the Blue Mountains on Monday morning (after a stop to find an opticians to mend my glasses). The train journey is a very leisurely 2 hours (the bus only takes 40mins!), but it is nice to watch the changing scenery from inner city Sydney to typical Australian suburbia and then out into the national park and some fabulous views. Even through the suburbia the views were surprisingly pretty, it was only as I neared Katoomba that I realised that everything is green! I've not seen proper green since leaving the UK, nothing quite compares to the sight of vegetation that is watered by rain and not a sprinkler system. It instantly lifted my spirits and actually made me laugh out loud (the couple of opposite me held on tightly to their bags at this point...)
I was met at the train station by my WWOOF-ing host who explained that I was required to work for 3.5 hours either starting at 7:30am, 9am or 6pm, there are 2 other WWOOFers here and we swop the shifts between us. The work is mainly cleaning in the attached guest house or mucking out the horses and very easy!
The best part of my stay here is the amazing bush walks and horse treks I've been on. The area is heavily forested with temperate rain forest. The forest is so thick in places that humans have never walked into some gorges. As you can imagine this means there is some really interesting wildlife - including my favourite the black cockatoo and the lyre bird (which drags its tail around the forest making you think that someone is following you - not so much fun until you realise what it is!). I've spent each day doing 3-4 hour bush hiking or horse treks (some of the land is too steep for horses so we left them and proceeded on foot).
My favourite place so far has been the trip down to Wentworth falls, the path starts on a lovely level board walk along the small cascades (where all teh Japanese tourists and the tour groups stop for photos and picnic breaks. If you carry on past these the path gets gradually steeper until you reach a drop of 600m with stone steps cut into the cliff, at the bottom of these is an amazing view up the falls. Carrying on further along a path cut in the tree you reach a small metal 'rope' type ladder - it took a lot of persuading but eventually I plucked up the courage to climb down this for a further 300m. The view at the bottom was amazing. We ( a fellow WWOOFer and me) were met by a glorious rock pool surrounded by rainforest vegetation and birds - with 300m of water fall cascading into the pool (think ''herbal essence'' advert but better. After stripping off for a swim we followed a rather difficult path along the bottom of the cliff to climb up a waterfall with natural steps at the other side.
On another day we pony treked along a pass that was origionally built to ferry coal from the mine up the mountain. teh path wove around the base of the cliff going past many waterfalls and small water holes as well as past the eneterance ot long abandoned coal mines. After 2 hours of riding we reached the bottom of hte ruined castle hill and left the horses by a watering hole. It then took 1 hour to scramble up the rock face of the hill to the top of the hill to be rewarede with the most amazing views. The views however were spoilt by a huge bushfire headin in our direction. The wind was not very strong and the temperatures were quite cool so we weren't really worried but I rang hte mountain hut for advice as to which way the fire was travelling and whether we needed to get off the mountain asap! Apparently the fire was coming right for us but was under control and not travelling very fast - however we were advised to leave the bush and head back for town. What followed was a very nervewracking bottom slide down the rock face and a quick trot along the track back to town. The fires reached were we were this morning 3 days after we left in such a hurry!! (The fires were part of a national park back burnign sceme to keep the amount of fuel down by intentionally lighting fires on low risk days to stop a large fire coming through on a hig risk day). Still this provided a little more excitement tha I would normally like!
Other paths have been equally spectacular (and adventurous).
The town of Katoomba itself is a rather cute 1920's town with a rather hippy Bohemian feel to it. Possibly one of my favourite places in Australia that I've visited so far. As for the place I'm staying, the attached guest house is really nice and friendly and I've spent the evenings sat outside around the fire toasting dough ball (a recipe given to me by a fellow traveller) and drinking mulled wine... :) I will stay here until next Wednesday when I will maybe go to the Hunter Valley for two nights before going back to Sydney.
I was met at the train station by my WWOOF-ing host who explained that I was required to work for 3.5 hours either starting at 7:30am, 9am or 6pm, there are 2 other WWOOFers here and we swop the shifts between us. The work is mainly cleaning in the attached guest house or mucking out the horses and very easy!
The best part of my stay here is the amazing bush walks and horse treks I've been on. The area is heavily forested with temperate rain forest. The forest is so thick in places that humans have never walked into some gorges. As you can imagine this means there is some really interesting wildlife - including my favourite the black cockatoo and the lyre bird (which drags its tail around the forest making you think that someone is following you - not so much fun until you realise what it is!). I've spent each day doing 3-4 hour bush hiking or horse treks (some of the land is too steep for horses so we left them and proceeded on foot).
My favourite place so far has been the trip down to Wentworth falls, the path starts on a lovely level board walk along the small cascades (where all teh Japanese tourists and the tour groups stop for photos and picnic breaks. If you carry on past these the path gets gradually steeper until you reach a drop of 600m with stone steps cut into the cliff, at the bottom of these is an amazing view up the falls. Carrying on further along a path cut in the tree you reach a small metal 'rope' type ladder - it took a lot of persuading but eventually I plucked up the courage to climb down this for a further 300m. The view at the bottom was amazing. We ( a fellow WWOOFer and me) were met by a glorious rock pool surrounded by rainforest vegetation and birds - with 300m of water fall cascading into the pool (think ''herbal essence'' advert but better. After stripping off for a swim we followed a rather difficult path along the bottom of the cliff to climb up a waterfall with natural steps at the other side.
On another day we pony treked along a pass that was origionally built to ferry coal from the mine up the mountain. teh path wove around the base of the cliff going past many waterfalls and small water holes as well as past the eneterance ot long abandoned coal mines. After 2 hours of riding we reached the bottom of hte ruined castle hill and left the horses by a watering hole. It then took 1 hour to scramble up the rock face of the hill to the top of the hill to be rewarede with the most amazing views. The views however were spoilt by a huge bushfire headin in our direction. The wind was not very strong and the temperatures were quite cool so we weren't really worried but I rang hte mountain hut for advice as to which way the fire was travelling and whether we needed to get off the mountain asap! Apparently the fire was coming right for us but was under control and not travelling very fast - however we were advised to leave the bush and head back for town. What followed was a very nervewracking bottom slide down the rock face and a quick trot along the track back to town. The fires reached were we were this morning 3 days after we left in such a hurry!! (The fires were part of a national park back burnign sceme to keep the amount of fuel down by intentionally lighting fires on low risk days to stop a large fire coming through on a hig risk day). Still this provided a little more excitement tha I would normally like!
Other paths have been equally spectacular (and adventurous).
The town of Katoomba itself is a rather cute 1920's town with a rather hippy Bohemian feel to it. Possibly one of my favourite places in Australia that I've visited so far. As for the place I'm staying, the attached guest house is really nice and friendly and I've spent the evenings sat outside around the fire toasting dough ball (a recipe given to me by a fellow traveller) and drinking mulled wine... :) I will stay here until next Wednesday when I will maybe go to the Hunter Valley for two nights before going back to Sydney.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Tonight I will be your glamorous assistant :)
I made it to Sydney this morning and am writing this while sheltering from some pretty impressive thunder storms! I have one night in Sydney and then catch the train up to Katoomba tomorrow morning where I will be met by my WWOOF-ing host. I'm using the time to do some paperwork :( and start planning for the next stage of my trip.
My last day in Adelaide was great fun, I met up with a comedian, a hurdy gurdy player and a magician in the hostel who were performing at the fringe. The magician recognised me as my mums daughter! He used to be based in Lancashire and performed at the great Lancashire show with mum about 10 years ago (small world huh?) Anyway I spent the afternoon and the evening in the Garden of unearthly desires which is one of the venues for the fringe, soaking up the free street shows and sneaking backstage at some of the musical events. the day was made even better byt he free food and drink circulating to keep everyone entertained (I've now fully completed the transition to backpacker as free things make my day - especially free food!) I even had a try at performing myself as my magician friends audience helper (nothing too exciting I helped fasten the padlock for his Houdini-esk escape act and helped with some card tricks.
Oh well the rain is now stopping so I shall make my way back from the harbour and to the center of town. More from the Blue Mountains...
p.s. my Aussie accent must be getting better - someone accused me of being from Sydney on the plane this morning.
My last day in Adelaide was great fun, I met up with a comedian, a hurdy gurdy player and a magician in the hostel who were performing at the fringe. The magician recognised me as my mums daughter! He used to be based in Lancashire and performed at the great Lancashire show with mum about 10 years ago (small world huh?) Anyway I spent the afternoon and the evening in the Garden of unearthly desires which is one of the venues for the fringe, soaking up the free street shows and sneaking backstage at some of the musical events. the day was made even better byt he free food and drink circulating to keep everyone entertained (I've now fully completed the transition to backpacker as free things make my day - especially free food!) I even had a try at performing myself as my magician friends audience helper (nothing too exciting I helped fasten the padlock for his Houdini-esk escape act and helped with some card tricks.
Oh well the rain is now stopping so I shall make my way back from the harbour and to the center of town. More from the Blue Mountains...
p.s. my Aussie accent must be getting better - someone accused me of being from Sydney on the plane this morning.
Friday, 13 March 2009
Firework farewell and onwards to Adelaide
I spent the last day in Melbourne enjoying the the Moomba festival - I may have mentioned that thw festival had everything from waterskiing events to new Australian music and a firework display each evening. The fireworks were fantastic, they were let off on barges along the river bank, so they were shown against the Melbourne sky-line. Each rocket and fountain was timed perfectly to a version of Beethovans Moonlight sonata (cheesy but still one of my favourites) played on flamenco guitar with a didgeridoo accompaniment (surprisingly worked very well). Definately a highlight to leave Melbourne with!
The next day we left for the Great Ocean Road, the road was built to improve tourism access to the coastline and was planned before the first world war. The construction was put off until after the war primerily to provide jobs for soldiers returning from the battlefields. The road travels through some amazing scenery on the surfers coastline and then through to the shipwreck coastline, winding up over hills and along the beach. There were lots of motorcyclists and bicycles which looked like an amazing way to do the route. We spent the first day visitng beaches along teh surfers coast and the second day along teh shipwreck coast taking in famous sights such as the 12 apostles, loch ard gorge and a great blast from the past the light house from the childrens TV series "round the twist"!
Aside from the fantastic scenery we also saw loads of wildlife. Including lots of Koala bears, kangaroos and a fur seal.
I also heard and saw the Koala bears mating - which is possibly the most disturbing thing I have witnessed for a long time.
It starts with the males letting out a growl which sounds cross between a donkey braying and what I imagine a grizzly sounds like (surprisingly loud and scary sounding for such a small fluffy creature!) The females then reply with what sounds like a babies cry (the sort that makes everyone in the room cringe and shiver with worry). The male koala then walks along and climbs the females tree each of them calling out all the time (Koalas are not fast movers so this can take some time - and the one I was watching fell asleep in the middle...) Upon reaching teh female the male bear starts scratching biting and pulling the female from the tree (her screeming all the way down - according to the ranger this is a sign of pleasure but it sounded and looked much more menaching!) Once on the ground the couple I was watching then fell asleep for 30 mins before starting up again - All this while I was trying to sleep (the dangers of camping in the woods i presume)
I the evening we also took a walk round the temperate rainforest north of Apollo bay, including seeing teh glow in the dark fungus and glow worms - really quite cool (the photo of them is not so exciting though, it looks like i've just drawn a green line on a black piece of paper).
I arrived in Adelaide this morning at 6:30am SA time and did my washing while waiting for sunrise to explore the city. Its the Adelaide fringe festival at the mo, so there were lodas of buskers on the streets and tonight i'm going to see the didgeridoo man perform at the pub opposite the hostel (Oxford people will recognise this guy as the man who busks on Cornmarket street every summer with the didge and the tambula). Adelaids streets are strangely pretty as one of the few cities in Australia where the founders built in stone rather than wood - everything has a colonial feel.
i have one more day in Adelaide then off to the Blue Mountains for my WWOOFing post. I'll probably stay there for a week before heading back into Sydney for my last week in Australia.
The next day we left for the Great Ocean Road, the road was built to improve tourism access to the coastline and was planned before the first world war. The construction was put off until after the war primerily to provide jobs for soldiers returning from the battlefields. The road travels through some amazing scenery on the surfers coastline and then through to the shipwreck coastline, winding up over hills and along the beach. There were lots of motorcyclists and bicycles which looked like an amazing way to do the route. We spent the first day visitng beaches along teh surfers coast and the second day along teh shipwreck coast taking in famous sights such as the 12 apostles, loch ard gorge and a great blast from the past the light house from the childrens TV series "round the twist"!
Aside from the fantastic scenery we also saw loads of wildlife. Including lots of Koala bears, kangaroos and a fur seal.
I also heard and saw the Koala bears mating - which is possibly the most disturbing thing I have witnessed for a long time.
It starts with the males letting out a growl which sounds cross between a donkey braying and what I imagine a grizzly sounds like (surprisingly loud and scary sounding for such a small fluffy creature!) The females then reply with what sounds like a babies cry (the sort that makes everyone in the room cringe and shiver with worry). The male koala then walks along and climbs the females tree each of them calling out all the time (Koalas are not fast movers so this can take some time - and the one I was watching fell asleep in the middle...) Upon reaching teh female the male bear starts scratching biting and pulling the female from the tree (her screeming all the way down - according to the ranger this is a sign of pleasure but it sounded and looked much more menaching!) Once on the ground the couple I was watching then fell asleep for 30 mins before starting up again - All this while I was trying to sleep (the dangers of camping in the woods i presume)
I the evening we also took a walk round the temperate rainforest north of Apollo bay, including seeing teh glow in the dark fungus and glow worms - really quite cool (the photo of them is not so exciting though, it looks like i've just drawn a green line on a black piece of paper).
I arrived in Adelaide this morning at 6:30am SA time and did my washing while waiting for sunrise to explore the city. Its the Adelaide fringe festival at the mo, so there were lodas of buskers on the streets and tonight i'm going to see the didgeridoo man perform at the pub opposite the hostel (Oxford people will recognise this guy as the man who busks on Cornmarket street every summer with the didge and the tambula). Adelaids streets are strangely pretty as one of the few cities in Australia where the founders built in stone rather than wood - everything has a colonial feel.
i have one more day in Adelaide then off to the Blue Mountains for my WWOOFing post. I'll probably stay there for a week before heading back into Sydney for my last week in Australia.
Monday, 9 March 2009
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Keep left to turn right!
I have just spent the day cycling round a city with possibly the most confusing traffic laws in the entire western world! At one point I was so confused by where I was meant to be that i cycled round the block 3 times - with the people in the cafe watching with increasing amusement. The source of my confusement is Melbournes famous right hook turn. Drivers wishing to turn right at certain junctions (not all - that would be too easy) move into the left lane and then wait in the middle of the junction until all other traffic has gone through before crossing the middle of the junction to turn right. to make maters more confusing cyclists are expected to follow suit at some junctions and are expected to utilise the pedestrian/cyclist crossing at other junctions (no warning as to which is which until you reach the traffic lights). Apparently the reasoning behind such madness is actually quite sound - Melbourne has quite a comprehensive system of trams (riding trams and buying tram tickets is also unnecessarily confusing), cars waiting on the left leave room for the trams to go through... needless to say this meant that as well as looking out for cars attacking me from the right to turn left I had to look to the left for cars going right!
Once I'd figured out how to turn right (I decided the safest option was to always get off and push!) i had quite a pleasant cycle ride down the river and then along the coast to St. Kilder. St. Kilder is a beach type resort suburb on the south of Melbourne. There is a beautiful Victorian pier with a kiosk (good for hot chocolate and shelter from the cold wind) and an old fashioned Blackpool like rollarcoaster! I found a gloriously foodie cafe on the Esplanade and settled down to a fish breakfast (highly unhealthy but really yummy). There is also an art and craft market there every Sunday which is why I set off to the beach with an overcast sky. I nearly purchased a fantastic painting of the Melbourne sky line and a really pretty didgeridoo, however sense kicked in as I mentally calculated the cost and hassle of shipping a 6ftx3ft canvas and a 3.5ft 'didge' home to England...
After I had exhausted St. Kilder (about 30 mins before the sun came out which would have made a beach day very enjoyable!) i left to cycle back to the river and to explore the Moomba water festival. this is Melbourne's largest free festival with everything from water skiing competitions (quite impressive), fun fair rides, kiosk food and the obligatory children's entertainers - (I was picked on by a man dressed in a gnome costume who made me dance to the bob the builder theme tune!) I then found the music corner and listened to quite a good swing band - I even danced without the help of the man in the gnome costume!
Yesterday was my Phillip Island trip mainly to watch the penguin parade. Every evening at sunset hundred of fairy penguins (now to be called little penguins because the gay rights activists complained to the Victorian parliament!) waddle out of the water and walk up to their nests. They are possibly the cutest penguins I've ever seen - thought admittedly my penguin knowledge is fairly limited!) Before they pluck up the courage to walk across teh beach (the most dangerous part as they are totally exposed) they get in and out of the water a couple of times. Its really quite funny to watch as they waddle out of hte water and then scurry back in only to be knocked over by a wave. Once they have plucked up the courage to wander across the beach they head up the sand dunes to their nests in the thick scrub bushes. Its amazing to think that these little birds know exactly where to go and are unperturbed by hundreds of tourists wandering amongst them and trying to take photos (photos aren't allowed as the flashes hurt the penguins eyes so I can't post pictures here :( ). The day trip also included cuddling a koala bear and trying to find wild wombats (I am a most unskilled wombat spotter!).
Oh well I have one more day in Melbourne before the great ocean road to Adelaide (via the Grampians too). I will probably not be able to update the blog on tour but I will keep notes. On another now I now have over 900 photos - I will be looking for volunteers to sit through the slide show when I get home ;)
Once I'd figured out how to turn right (I decided the safest option was to always get off and push!) i had quite a pleasant cycle ride down the river and then along the coast to St. Kilder. St. Kilder is a beach type resort suburb on the south of Melbourne. There is a beautiful Victorian pier with a kiosk (good for hot chocolate and shelter from the cold wind) and an old fashioned Blackpool like rollarcoaster! I found a gloriously foodie cafe on the Esplanade and settled down to a fish breakfast (highly unhealthy but really yummy). There is also an art and craft market there every Sunday which is why I set off to the beach with an overcast sky. I nearly purchased a fantastic painting of the Melbourne sky line and a really pretty didgeridoo, however sense kicked in as I mentally calculated the cost and hassle of shipping a 6ftx3ft canvas and a 3.5ft 'didge' home to England...
After I had exhausted St. Kilder (about 30 mins before the sun came out which would have made a beach day very enjoyable!) i left to cycle back to the river and to explore the Moomba water festival. this is Melbourne's largest free festival with everything from water skiing competitions (quite impressive), fun fair rides, kiosk food and the obligatory children's entertainers - (I was picked on by a man dressed in a gnome costume who made me dance to the bob the builder theme tune!) I then found the music corner and listened to quite a good swing band - I even danced without the help of the man in the gnome costume!
Yesterday was my Phillip Island trip mainly to watch the penguin parade. Every evening at sunset hundred of fairy penguins (now to be called little penguins because the gay rights activists complained to the Victorian parliament!) waddle out of the water and walk up to their nests. They are possibly the cutest penguins I've ever seen - thought admittedly my penguin knowledge is fairly limited!) Before they pluck up the courage to walk across teh beach (the most dangerous part as they are totally exposed) they get in and out of the water a couple of times. Its really quite funny to watch as they waddle out of hte water and then scurry back in only to be knocked over by a wave. Once they have plucked up the courage to wander across the beach they head up the sand dunes to their nests in the thick scrub bushes. Its amazing to think that these little birds know exactly where to go and are unperturbed by hundreds of tourists wandering amongst them and trying to take photos (photos aren't allowed as the flashes hurt the penguins eyes so I can't post pictures here :( ). The day trip also included cuddling a koala bear and trying to find wild wombats (I am a most unskilled wombat spotter!).
Oh well I have one more day in Melbourne before the great ocean road to Adelaide (via the Grampians too). I will probably not be able to update the blog on tour but I will keep notes. On another now I now have over 900 photos - I will be looking for volunteers to sit through the slide show when I get home ;)
Friday, 6 March 2009
Melbourne
I flew from Alice Springs to Melbourne early Tuesday Morning. The journey itself was quite sobbering as we flew over some of the land affected by the bush fires - a huge area was covered in a slightly browny grey cloud layer (the Captain refered to it as mist!), it was also possiblet to see the remains of some of the settlements. There was a very strong wind from the north when we touched down (strong enough to make landing exciting) and there was a definate smell of smoke around the airport.
The wind has since changed direction and the smell of smoke has gone - it has however been replaced with very British rain adn cold weather! So I have spent the last week cramming in almost every Melbourne based tourist activity possible... Melbourne is such a lovely city, it is obviously much older than Perth and has a very European cafe culture feel to it. I've spent many an hour (mainly due to being lost - )wandering round the landways which have some fantastic independent designer shops, cafes and art galleries. I was initially lost because I forgot that the sun is in the North (school girl error but quite disorientating) and then when I finally realised that mistake I had changed maps and didn't notice for awhile that this map had south at the top of the page!! There are also quite a few colonial style buildings left in the city center alongside the very modern sky scrapers which give the city a very cosmopolitan feel. The city council (?) have put on a toursit bus that does a circuit of the city leaving various locations every 30 minutes, this has proved a brilliant way to get a feel for the city. And meant that I have visited locations that I would normally have dismissed as not my thing - including the Melbourne Cricket ground (this one was in honour of Ken!) which has also hosted the Olympic games and the Commenwealth games.
The University of Melbourne has its campus just behind the hostel where I am staying so I have also been for a wander around the campus which boasts lots of public art work. the University also has colleges attached to it in a simmilar way to Oxford and Cambridge. I don't think students have to be assosciated with a college, but many use them as halls of residence in their first year, the colleges also provide tutorials on certain subjects. I was fortunate enough to be invited to high table at St. Hildas college (Phils sister was a tutor here and so asked a friend to show me round :) ). It was quite a surreal experience as we had to wear gowns and the students all stood up as we enetered. High table aws very like that at any Oxford college - except just before desert the vice principal stood up with a microphone and made announcedments as to where to meet to organise tutorials and who to buy tickets for the pub crawl from! There is also a Queen's college which was founded in 1887 which I had a quick peep into the grounds... not at all like Queens in Oxford but it was quite interesting to compare.
Tomorrow I go to Philipps Island to visit a wildlife sanctuary and watch a Penguin parade. I then head out on the Great Ocean road for Adelaide. My new discovery ( I wish i had found it sooner) is WWOOF-ing or Willing Workers On Organic Farms, in return for 4-6 hours work each day (general farm work, gardening etc) participants are given free board and lodging. I now have a WWOOF-ing placement on a horse farm organised in the Blue Mountains (-2hrs from Sydney) for 2 weeks time. The 'work' I will be doing involves riding and taking care of horses all day - something I have willingly paid to do in the past! For the worrying types, all the hosts have police checks, the organisation provides its own insurance for participants and I can leave whenever I want.
The wind has since changed direction and the smell of smoke has gone - it has however been replaced with very British rain adn cold weather! So I have spent the last week cramming in almost every Melbourne based tourist activity possible... Melbourne is such a lovely city, it is obviously much older than Perth and has a very European cafe culture feel to it. I've spent many an hour (mainly due to being lost - )wandering round the landways which have some fantastic independent designer shops, cafes and art galleries. I was initially lost because I forgot that the sun is in the North (school girl error but quite disorientating) and then when I finally realised that mistake I had changed maps and didn't notice for awhile that this map had south at the top of the page!! There are also quite a few colonial style buildings left in the city center alongside the very modern sky scrapers which give the city a very cosmopolitan feel. The city council (?) have put on a toursit bus that does a circuit of the city leaving various locations every 30 minutes, this has proved a brilliant way to get a feel for the city. And meant that I have visited locations that I would normally have dismissed as not my thing - including the Melbourne Cricket ground (this one was in honour of Ken!) which has also hosted the Olympic games and the Commenwealth games.
The University of Melbourne has its campus just behind the hostel where I am staying so I have also been for a wander around the campus which boasts lots of public art work. the University also has colleges attached to it in a simmilar way to Oxford and Cambridge. I don't think students have to be assosciated with a college, but many use them as halls of residence in their first year, the colleges also provide tutorials on certain subjects. I was fortunate enough to be invited to high table at St. Hildas college (Phils sister was a tutor here and so asked a friend to show me round :) ). It was quite a surreal experience as we had to wear gowns and the students all stood up as we enetered. High table aws very like that at any Oxford college - except just before desert the vice principal stood up with a microphone and made announcedments as to where to meet to organise tutorials and who to buy tickets for the pub crawl from! There is also a Queen's college which was founded in 1887 which I had a quick peep into the grounds... not at all like Queens in Oxford but it was quite interesting to compare.
Tomorrow I go to Philipps Island to visit a wildlife sanctuary and watch a Penguin parade. I then head out on the Great Ocean road for Adelaide. My new discovery ( I wish i had found it sooner) is WWOOF-ing or Willing Workers On Organic Farms, in return for 4-6 hours work each day (general farm work, gardening etc) participants are given free board and lodging. I now have a WWOOF-ing placement on a horse farm organised in the Blue Mountains (-2hrs from Sydney) for 2 weeks time. The 'work' I will be doing involves riding and taking care of horses all day - something I have willingly paid to do in the past! For the worrying types, all the hosts have police checks, the organisation provides its own insurance for participants and I can leave whenever I want.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Perth to Alice Springs
Well I made it to Alice Springs and now through to Melbourne. This means that I have a whole weeks worth of stuff to report (I kept notes old style with a paper and pen ) so I apologise in advance for the length of this post!
We left Perth on Wednesday accompanied by a soundtrack which mixed everything from Bob Dylon to the cheeky girls. The bus was a 4wd truck with a passenger cabin attached to the back instead of the usual trailer. We drove up towards the Western Australian goldfields through Coolgardie, Southern Cross to Kalgoorlie. The most recent gold boom in this area is probably coming to an end with the drop in raw material prices brought about by lack of demand from china (amoungst other things) which made it all the more poignant to drive through the almost ghost towns left behind from previous gold booms. there can't be much to sustain live out in these areas after the gold boom hsa gone. The drinking water is piped in along miles of pipes from Perth and once the mines close the money slowly dries up until all that are left are the people too old or stubborn to move on. The toughness of the climate is futher illustrated by the cemetries from the early days, most of the graves contain whole families most dying in order - as once the main bread winner was no longer around the rest of the family could not survive for long. Kalgoorlie is at the other end of the scale - very much still a boom town supported by huge mining opporations including the super pit whice was 500m deep when it was re-opened and is now so huge that the bottom is impossible to see if you stand at the edge. Kalgoorlie itself was founded by 3 Irish men who according to local legend found gold while reshoeing their horses on route another gold pit. Aside from the super pit Kalgoorlie is home to the skimpie (bar maids who serve alcohol dressed only in their underware - I suppose this is a natural consequence of a group of miners living in the desert?!?) and streets paved with gold ( the ore used to make the towns streets still contains ore - if they were not streets in aquite a large town it would be profitable to dig up the roads and reproces the ore). The super pit itself is an awe inspiring place. its incredible to think that there was ever anythign there but the constant whinning of trucks carrying their heavy loads up the long winding roads from the bottom of possibly the worlds largst man made hole. teh gold mining company have put a rather pathetic board at the top of th e pit describing how good for the environment their particular pit is. This basically amounts to testing the air every week and trying to work out how the quality got so low and planting the occasional tree! The whole area around the gold fields is dotted with holes in the ground - although the mines have obviously provided alot of wealth to the state, it is hard to imagine how the landscape around the pits will recover from the onslaught.
The next day we drove to the edge of teh golfields taking in the proper ghost town of gwalia on the edge of Laverton. When the local mine closed in 1063 the population of the town dropped over night from 1000+ to just 40. Residents from laverton have taken it upon themselves to care for are restore the town. Each house has a patron who has restored it in a way they deem fit. this has resulted in a rather odd mix of tin shacks restored to almost museum quality and others that have been left pretty much as they were but with gharish scarecrows placed on the beds and at teh kitchen tables! The town itself was mainly populated by Italien immigrants as their labour was cheaper than the local workforce. This has led to the town having an almost mediteranean feel with white washed walls and cruxifixes along side the things that got left behind - kettles, calendars and childrens toys. It must have been quite a harsh place to live, most of the houses consided of little more than corrugated iron huts.
The next part of our trip took us off the sealed roads along the great central road (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Central_Road ) . This is one o fhte most isolated roads in the country (we stopped at the most isolated road house in the country which is more than 300 kms from any settlements in any direction). Most of the land has now been re-claimed by the origional indigenous population. This meant new rules so as not to offend the locals - apprently a previous guide had been chased out of Warburton at gun point as one of his group disobeyed the no photo rule! The basic premise of the permit is that guest on the land dont travel more than 50m from the road, alcohol is not carried through the area (some people did carry alcohol but tried to keep it discrete) and photos are not taken in the townships. There are also other points of respect when dealing with the local community which included not asking personal questions, not looking someone in the eye and giving only light handshakes. We didn't leave Aborigional owned land until close to Alice Springs - it was a great honour to catch a glimpse of a culture that until 80 years ago had never encountered white people. It was also sad to see how the arrival of settlers changed everything that these people knew and some are still reeling form the after effects now.
As expected the desert doesn't have a plethera of youth hostels and organised camp sites to stay in. we camped in swag bags in clearings in the road - using bush toilets and not ahving accesss to showers for 4 days (Not ideal in 40 degree heat!). However the opportunity to sleep under some of teh most beautiful skies I have ever seen, in locations visited only by a couple 100 people every year was an experience I will not forget. The swag bags are basically roll up bed with a matress at the bottom and a waterproof zip round covering on the top. According to the guide if you zip all the way in leaivng only your head you should be safe from insects and nasties in the night. Apparently bugs wont climb near your head or heart (something about breathing and heart beats being too loud and scarey), however they will crawl into a nice sleeping bag near your feet if its left open. Needless to say I wasn't bitten by anything more obnoxious than a mosquito.
Travelling through a desert I wasn't expecting much rain - however my Englishness obviously caught up with us as we experienced some quite heavy downpours. Normally I would take on teh role of "winging pom" here but the effect of the rain on teh dessert was truely amazing. Never have I seen such a variety of greenery in a desert. Apparently there has been quite alot of flooding recently re-stocking the waterholes nad greening the area. We were very lukcy to see it like this - the area is normally very arid and only gets as much rain as we saw once of twice each decade. The downside of the greeness meant that there was an abundance of food in teh desert so the local wildlife were much harder to spot than would otherwise have been teh case - the rain also destroyed most of the animal tracks that it would have been fun to follow (Winging pom came back for a second!) We did however see lots of eagles and some camels. Camels were introduced to Australia to help with the exporation of the center. Some obviously got free and are now roaming the desert and breeding quite sucessfully - descemating watering holes and breaking up the local flora and fauna.
The road itself was built by Len Beadle one of the last great Australian Explorers. the road was built to service the 1500 mile long rocket range streching from Point Augusta to the 80mile beach near Broome and to service the Emu field nuclear tests sites. En-route we listened to one of Len Beadles lectures. he sounds like and amazing bush man - I recomend reading his books if you get the chance. More information about the rocket range and Len can be found on wikipedia 9the source of all knowledge! ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Beadell )
After 4 days we finally reached the Kata Tjuta (or the Olgas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kata_Tjuta) which is a conglomerate rock formation formed from sediment that broke of from the Peterman Ranges. Out of nowhere red road domes rise out of the dirt. The domes and canyons between them have been formed by millions of years of errosion , leaving a truely magical site. Teh site is a sacred place for teh local indigenous population the Anamala people. The site is designated a mens site which means that women would not have been able to look at it or enter the area. The local aborigional law specifies that men are not allwed to look at womens sites and vice versa. If a member of the people shoudl accidentally catch a view of the site they are to be punished. This means that the tkaing of photos of sacred sites can get a little confusing! It is the wish of the people that visitors do not take photos of sacred sites in case they are viewed accidently by someone who is not meant to see them. In the 1980's the National Geographic magazine took photos, without the knowledge of the local people, of Uluru (Ayers rock) for a special. The local people bought copies of the magazine adn of course saw photos of sites that they were not meant ot see - which apprently mean tthat everyone ahd to be punished with a sorry cut ( a cut made on a person head by hitting them with a sorry stick). As Kata Tjuta is male site it was ok to take photos as women should know not to look at them - however when we got to Uluru later in the photos of certain parts of the rock were forbidden as the rock is a mixture of male and female sacred sites.
Next we made our way to Uluru (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uluru )- we were to spend teh afernoon walking round the base of the rockbefore watching sunset and then stay the night and get up early to see sun rise over the rock. Uluru is such a sacred place for the local population. The sand stone is bascially a big sponge in the middle of the desert. It was truely an amazing site - however I couldn't help but feel the whole area had become slightly ridiculus. Special viewing areas had been set up to view the Uluru sunrise and sunset - which meant that you have hordes adn hordes of tour busse full of (usually) Japanese and German tourists drinking champagne looking at what is basically a red rock in the middle of the desert. The busses then stream out 5 minutes after sunset for people to stay to get to their 5 star resorts (or for teh backpackers amoungst us our 5 star camping facilities). I understand that a place such as that will attract lots of tourists (who feel obligued to take a photo every 5 minutes as the colour of the rock changes with the movement of the sun), but it does seem rather sad that such a special place has been taken away from the local population. There are lots of Aborigional stories associated with Uluru and various parts of the rock. I will not attempt to relay them as I am sure to get details wrong and that is certainly very offensive. Most of the stories are not to be told to the uninitiated people anyway, as tourists we learn only about the childrens stories. the place used to have many culturally significant sites used for ceremonies and teaching children - however the areas is now only used to teach children about their history.
The next day we drove onto Kings Canyon ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_Canyon_(Northern_Territory) a geological feature formed at teh center of three different mountain ranges - I use mountain in the Australian sense as by most standards they are really just hill ranges! We climbed to teh top of teh canyon and had a very enjoyabel walk aruond the rim - seeing such wonders as Priscilla crack where the final scene from the iconic movie 'The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert was filmed'. Jokes aside the canyon is a truely natural wonder. The unique conditions mean that plants from millions of years ago - relics of a more tropical climate have survived - not to mention the white sandstone rocks coloured by rust and algae. The first road to teh area was built by John Catteril who saw teh potential for tourism and made a road pulling a chain behind his truck. His son now runs one of teh local road houses where the star attraction is his singing dingo which even has its own trivial pursuits question (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpO5yZ71BNE) .
Finally we started the long journey home to Alice Springs - not without event. The heat of the day (53+ c) meant that the alternator finally died - and hence all battery charging ceased. Giving me the memorable experience of push starting the bus 3/4 times... true outback adventure?!?
We left Perth on Wednesday accompanied by a soundtrack which mixed everything from Bob Dylon to the cheeky girls. The bus was a 4wd truck with a passenger cabin attached to the back instead of the usual trailer. We drove up towards the Western Australian goldfields through Coolgardie, Southern Cross to Kalgoorlie. The most recent gold boom in this area is probably coming to an end with the drop in raw material prices brought about by lack of demand from china (amoungst other things) which made it all the more poignant to drive through the almost ghost towns left behind from previous gold booms. there can't be much to sustain live out in these areas after the gold boom hsa gone. The drinking water is piped in along miles of pipes from Perth and once the mines close the money slowly dries up until all that are left are the people too old or stubborn to move on. The toughness of the climate is futher illustrated by the cemetries from the early days, most of the graves contain whole families most dying in order - as once the main bread winner was no longer around the rest of the family could not survive for long. Kalgoorlie is at the other end of the scale - very much still a boom town supported by huge mining opporations including the super pit whice was 500m deep when it was re-opened and is now so huge that the bottom is impossible to see if you stand at the edge. Kalgoorlie itself was founded by 3 Irish men who according to local legend found gold while reshoeing their horses on route another gold pit. Aside from the super pit Kalgoorlie is home to the skimpie (bar maids who serve alcohol dressed only in their underware - I suppose this is a natural consequence of a group of miners living in the desert?!?) and streets paved with gold ( the ore used to make the towns streets still contains ore - if they were not streets in aquite a large town it would be profitable to dig up the roads and reproces the ore). The super pit itself is an awe inspiring place. its incredible to think that there was ever anythign there but the constant whinning of trucks carrying their heavy loads up the long winding roads from the bottom of possibly the worlds largst man made hole. teh gold mining company have put a rather pathetic board at the top of th e pit describing how good for the environment their particular pit is. This basically amounts to testing the air every week and trying to work out how the quality got so low and planting the occasional tree! The whole area around the gold fields is dotted with holes in the ground - although the mines have obviously provided alot of wealth to the state, it is hard to imagine how the landscape around the pits will recover from the onslaught.
The next day we drove to the edge of teh golfields taking in the proper ghost town of gwalia on the edge of Laverton. When the local mine closed in 1063 the population of the town dropped over night from 1000+ to just 40. Residents from laverton have taken it upon themselves to care for are restore the town. Each house has a patron who has restored it in a way they deem fit. this has resulted in a rather odd mix of tin shacks restored to almost museum quality and others that have been left pretty much as they were but with gharish scarecrows placed on the beds and at teh kitchen tables! The town itself was mainly populated by Italien immigrants as their labour was cheaper than the local workforce. This has led to the town having an almost mediteranean feel with white washed walls and cruxifixes along side the things that got left behind - kettles, calendars and childrens toys. It must have been quite a harsh place to live, most of the houses consided of little more than corrugated iron huts.
The next part of our trip took us off the sealed roads along the great central road (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Central_Road ) . This is one o fhte most isolated roads in the country (we stopped at the most isolated road house in the country which is more than 300 kms from any settlements in any direction). Most of the land has now been re-claimed by the origional indigenous population. This meant new rules so as not to offend the locals - apprently a previous guide had been chased out of Warburton at gun point as one of his group disobeyed the no photo rule! The basic premise of the permit is that guest on the land dont travel more than 50m from the road, alcohol is not carried through the area (some people did carry alcohol but tried to keep it discrete) and photos are not taken in the townships. There are also other points of respect when dealing with the local community which included not asking personal questions, not looking someone in the eye and giving only light handshakes. We didn't leave Aborigional owned land until close to Alice Springs - it was a great honour to catch a glimpse of a culture that until 80 years ago had never encountered white people. It was also sad to see how the arrival of settlers changed everything that these people knew and some are still reeling form the after effects now.
As expected the desert doesn't have a plethera of youth hostels and organised camp sites to stay in. we camped in swag bags in clearings in the road - using bush toilets and not ahving accesss to showers for 4 days (Not ideal in 40 degree heat!). However the opportunity to sleep under some of teh most beautiful skies I have ever seen, in locations visited only by a couple 100 people every year was an experience I will not forget. The swag bags are basically roll up bed with a matress at the bottom and a waterproof zip round covering on the top. According to the guide if you zip all the way in leaivng only your head you should be safe from insects and nasties in the night. Apparently bugs wont climb near your head or heart (something about breathing and heart beats being too loud and scarey), however they will crawl into a nice sleeping bag near your feet if its left open. Needless to say I wasn't bitten by anything more obnoxious than a mosquito.
Travelling through a desert I wasn't expecting much rain - however my Englishness obviously caught up with us as we experienced some quite heavy downpours. Normally I would take on teh role of "winging pom" here but the effect of the rain on teh dessert was truely amazing. Never have I seen such a variety of greenery in a desert. Apparently there has been quite alot of flooding recently re-stocking the waterholes nad greening the area. We were very lukcy to see it like this - the area is normally very arid and only gets as much rain as we saw once of twice each decade. The downside of the greeness meant that there was an abundance of food in teh desert so the local wildlife were much harder to spot than would otherwise have been teh case - the rain also destroyed most of the animal tracks that it would have been fun to follow (Winging pom came back for a second!) We did however see lots of eagles and some camels. Camels were introduced to Australia to help with the exporation of the center. Some obviously got free and are now roaming the desert and breeding quite sucessfully - descemating watering holes and breaking up the local flora and fauna.
The road itself was built by Len Beadle one of the last great Australian Explorers. the road was built to service the 1500 mile long rocket range streching from Point Augusta to the 80mile beach near Broome and to service the Emu field nuclear tests sites. En-route we listened to one of Len Beadles lectures. he sounds like and amazing bush man - I recomend reading his books if you get the chance. More information about the rocket range and Len can be found on wikipedia 9the source of all knowledge! ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Beadell )
After 4 days we finally reached the Kata Tjuta (or the Olgas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kata_Tjuta) which is a conglomerate rock formation formed from sediment that broke of from the Peterman Ranges. Out of nowhere red road domes rise out of the dirt. The domes and canyons between them have been formed by millions of years of errosion , leaving a truely magical site. Teh site is a sacred place for teh local indigenous population the Anamala people. The site is designated a mens site which means that women would not have been able to look at it or enter the area. The local aborigional law specifies that men are not allwed to look at womens sites and vice versa. If a member of the people shoudl accidentally catch a view of the site they are to be punished. This means that the tkaing of photos of sacred sites can get a little confusing! It is the wish of the people that visitors do not take photos of sacred sites in case they are viewed accidently by someone who is not meant to see them. In the 1980's the National Geographic magazine took photos, without the knowledge of the local people, of Uluru (Ayers rock) for a special. The local people bought copies of the magazine adn of course saw photos of sites that they were not meant ot see - which apprently mean tthat everyone ahd to be punished with a sorry cut ( a cut made on a person head by hitting them with a sorry stick). As Kata Tjuta is male site it was ok to take photos as women should know not to look at them - however when we got to Uluru later in the photos of certain parts of the rock were forbidden as the rock is a mixture of male and female sacred sites.
Next we made our way to Uluru (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uluru )- we were to spend teh afernoon walking round the base of the rockbefore watching sunset and then stay the night and get up early to see sun rise over the rock. Uluru is such a sacred place for the local population. The sand stone is bascially a big sponge in the middle of the desert. It was truely an amazing site - however I couldn't help but feel the whole area had become slightly ridiculus. Special viewing areas had been set up to view the Uluru sunrise and sunset - which meant that you have hordes adn hordes of tour busse full of (usually) Japanese and German tourists drinking champagne looking at what is basically a red rock in the middle of the desert. The busses then stream out 5 minutes after sunset for people to stay to get to their 5 star resorts (or for teh backpackers amoungst us our 5 star camping facilities). I understand that a place such as that will attract lots of tourists (who feel obligued to take a photo every 5 minutes as the colour of the rock changes with the movement of the sun), but it does seem rather sad that such a special place has been taken away from the local population. There are lots of Aborigional stories associated with Uluru and various parts of the rock. I will not attempt to relay them as I am sure to get details wrong and that is certainly very offensive. Most of the stories are not to be told to the uninitiated people anyway, as tourists we learn only about the childrens stories. the place used to have many culturally significant sites used for ceremonies and teaching children - however the areas is now only used to teach children about their history.
The next day we drove onto Kings Canyon ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_Canyon_(Northern_Territory) a geological feature formed at teh center of three different mountain ranges - I use mountain in the Australian sense as by most standards they are really just hill ranges! We climbed to teh top of teh canyon and had a very enjoyabel walk aruond the rim - seeing such wonders as Priscilla crack where the final scene from the iconic movie 'The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert was filmed'. Jokes aside the canyon is a truely natural wonder. The unique conditions mean that plants from millions of years ago - relics of a more tropical climate have survived - not to mention the white sandstone rocks coloured by rust and algae. The first road to teh area was built by John Catteril who saw teh potential for tourism and made a road pulling a chain behind his truck. His son now runs one of teh local road houses where the star attraction is his singing dingo which even has its own trivial pursuits question (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpO5yZ71BNE) .
Finally we started the long journey home to Alice Springs - not without event. The heat of the day (53+ c) meant that the alternator finally died - and hence all battery charging ceased. Giving me the memorable experience of push starting the bus 3/4 times... true outback adventure?!?
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