The Ghan up to Alice Springs was nice but quiet. I ended up sitting next to a German guy called Frederik who comes from Detmold, Germany. It's a small world. We arrived in Alice at 3pm and it was only a 5min walk to my hostel from the train station, but it was very very hot! After checking in and chilling in the wonderful air con I ventured out to the supermarket for food and got a slight culture shock as Alice Springs probably has one of the highest populations of Aboriginal people in Australia. It was... different. I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool in the hostel and then having a minor drama with a bug in the shower. Luckily no spiders!
The next day I'd booked myself onto a one day tour to Uluru. I'd been planning on sort of finding my own way there, but though Alice Springs is the closest town to Uluru the rock is actually 500km away! My tour was "Emu Run" and was one of the best tours I've done. Scotty and Nick were our guides and they were both incredibly knowledgeable, enthusiastic and very funny, calling us all 'possoms' and 'vegemites'. I was picked up from my hostel at 6am to be transfered to the main bus. And guess who was on it? Frederik from The Ghan! Very funny. We were given breakfast and I dozed most of the way to Uluru but when I was awake I kept my eyes peeled for roos (as there's meant to be about 40 million of them in Oz) and saw... none. None at all. And the Red Centre was green as they've had so much rain there recently! Typical; I go to one of the driest places on earth just after they've had a record-breaking amount of rainfall - 300ml since January and until then a record year had been 250ml! Ah well.
We arrived at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park around 12pm and, after a quick toilet break at Yulara (Ayre's Rock Resort - the only place nearby to stay and so is incredibly expensive), we headed to Kata Tjuta, known in English as The Olgas. En route we were given our lunch and then went for a walk down the Windy Gorge, which was very pretty and had a stream with some tadpoles in it. From there we drove to the Cultural Centre, with a brief stop to look at some camels that were wandering around happily. Australia has the largest population of wild camels in the world - about 1 million of them. They have become a bit of a pest. But the farmers like them because they eat a plant which is a natural antibiotic (hence why they're so healthy) and then they drink from the same water as the cattle and so pass on the protection. The cattle here are very healthy and also free range! Scotty told us there were two types of cattle in the Outback: the Australian and the Scottish. It's very easy to tell the difference he said, "The Scottish cow has a pair of bagpipes between its back legs while the Australian one has a didgeridoo hanging down from its stomach"... Yes yes, very funny.
The Cultural Centre was nice to walk around as it told a lot of the Aboriginal 'dream time' (or 'creation') stories of the area, such as the one about Kuniya and Liru (python and poisonous snake) and of the Mala tribe. All of them are stories the Anangu (Aboriginals) tell to their children as they don't consider foreigners 'mature' enough to be told the true ones. From the Cultural Centre we drove to the base of Uluru and Scotty took us on the first of two short walks to see some of the areas mentioned in the dream time stories. There were areas along the trail that we could not enter or photograph because they are sacred to the Anangu. But we did see some wall paintings and a waterhole. It's one of the reasons Uluru (which means "meeting place") is so special to the Anangu - because in the desert it's one of the few places they could be almost guaranteed to find water. One the way to the last viewpoint, Scotty stopped the bus so he could grab a thorny devil (lizard) from the road and show it to us all. It was very spiky! Our final stop was for a BBQ complete with champagne while we watched the sunset at Uluru. The sun actually sets behind us so what we were watching was the colour change on the rock - from orangey red, to pink, to purple. It was beautiful and we had a perfect evening for it too. No clouds just clear sky. In fact, the whole day had been lovely: sunny and 36 degrees! Once the sun set we all piled onto the coach and set off for Alice. I didn't get back to my hostel until 12.30am but it was worth it!
I had a full day in Alice the next day and as my attempt at a lie-in failed I ended up wandering around the town. First stop was to climb Anzac Hill to have a look at the war memorial and get some good views of the countryside. It was so hot and the path I took to get up there didn't look as if many people used it. There were grasshoppers everywhere, hundreds that kept flying up at me every time I moved and I was scared a snake would jump out at me. It looked like the right area for them and I was only wearing my 'thongs' (flip flops to all us normal people). But I saw nothing and survived the walk up and back down. I found the main street in Alice after that and had a look around some of the shops. It was a little strange walking around as there were groups of Aboriginals sitting everywhere and they were a little intimidating as they'd stare at you as you walked passed. But I smiled at them and they smiled back so I never felt threatened. Just don't try and get into a conversation about them with a white Aussie... Well, some white Aussies anyway. Eventually I was too hot and tired to do much else and escaped back to my lovely air conditioned hostel to eat and pack for the train back down to Adelaide the next morning.
I had enough time the next morning to run to the supermarket and get some supplies for the train (I've learnt my lesson with train food. It may seem fairly cheap but you don't get nearly enough for a meal!) before walking to the station. I was determined not to be late this time so I arrived an hour and a half early! But most other people had the same idea so the station was pretty packed. I was next to a window this time and as the train was fairly empty I ended up with two seats to myself - and a nutter sitting behind me! His name was Joel and he was a street magician from Sydney. He said hello from somewhere behind my head and then came and sat next to me to chat and I couldn't get rid of him! I confess in the end he just got one-word answers from me and as soon as he got up I spread my stuff over the seat to prevent a return. I wasn't the only one though. I think he was definitely a few sandwiches short of a picnic and was a little distracting at night because he kept talking to himself! Seriously! Very odd. We finally arrived back in Adelaide that afternoon and when I got back to my hostel the owner gave me a free nights accommodation because of the time I stayed there before (they do a 'stay 6 nights get the 7th free' but I thought it all had to be in one go. Not this one). I was in the same room and the same bed as before and bumped into the Irish guys pretty much as soon as I got off the bus.
That evening two of the Irish guys and I went to our first Aussie Rules match at the Richmond Oval - the North Adelaide "Roosters" vs. the West Adelaide "Bloods". It was South Australian league game rather than an AFL match but even so there was about four thousand people there. The game wasn't very close (80 to 20 or something like that - the Bloods won by a huge margin which was good as we were apparently supporting them that night. According to one of the Irish guys workmates anyway.) and I couldn't figure out what was happening in the middle of the pitch but I did get my head around scoring pretty easily. During the quarter breaks everyone could go down onto the pitch and have a kick around or listen in to the team talks which was very strange but a good laugh. The next day saw me and the Kiwi guy go on a disastrous hunt for an Australian SIM card for my mobile. Having spent ages looking I finally found a really good one only to discover my phone was locked. Typical. Knew I should have checked it before I left. Never mind. That afternoon we watched the Melbourne F1 qualifiers and sat out the back with a couple of beers. I had a go at Hurling (yep, the Irish game. The guys have a couple of hurls over with them so we had a 'puck around'. Thank you Niamh for teaching me so I didn't make a complete fool out of myself!) and then we went to watch the football in a sports bar - at 2am because it was live. I'd forgotten my ID and was wearing two things forbidden on the bars dress code but the bouncer still let me in to the disbelief of the guys! When the games ended we left, mostly because the English guy that was with us was too drunk to walk properly! Getting him back to the hostel was quite amusing. As a result everyone had a nice quiet day the next day. We watched the Grand Prix and then went to an Indian restaurant in the evening which was lovely. But I got an early night because I was off on another train journey in the morning. Woo, more trains!
Tuesday 27 April 2010
Adelaide
My first day in Adelaide was spent with Esther just walking around the city. Adelaide is small and green. The Central Business District (CBD) is surrounded by parks in a sort of square shape. The main shopping area of Rundell Mall had a tourist information centre where we could pick up some maps and leaflets and then went on a little walk the lady had recommended - across the bridge to the northern part of the city, passed the Adelaide Oval up to a viewing point and then back down along the river. It was really nice and chilled out, not feeling like a big city in the slightest. We decided it was too hot to go into the Adelaide Zoo today so made plans to meet up again later in the week before I headed back to the hostel to meet the locals.
My hostel was amazing. It was tiny and homely, with most of the residents having lived there at least a month if not longer. They gave us a free breakfast of fresh-made pancakes every morning!! Everyone was very friendly and my first afternoon I went down to West Beach with two Irish guys and two English guys for a swim and a kick around. Had a mild heart-attack after seeing black fins in the water but thankfully they were just dolphins. The difference? Dolphins go up-and-down while sharks just go straight (and you'll probably never see the shark until it bites you - isn't that comforting?!).
The next day was St. Patricks Day and with a strong Irish presence at the hostel it was also an interesting day! A group of us tried to get to the beach with four of us squeezed in the back of a car only to be pulled over by the police and escorted back to the hostel before we'd even driven five minutes! With that plan scuttled we ended up sitting out the back of the hostel with a couple of beers until going on to an Irish Pub that evening. The Australians do love their St. Paddy's Day here! The place was packed with people dressed in green and drinking Guinness. It was a fun evening.
On the Thursday I met up with Esther again and we went to the Zoo. They've just going two pandas in - Wang Wang and Funi - who are incredibly popular and have been made into cartoon characters. Got creeped out in the reptile house (nice to see all the lovely things that can kill you) and tried to spot the tigers but they were hiding. The monkeys were pretty funny though and there was the tiniest baby meercat ever! Talk about aw! The following day the two of us caught the tram out to Glenelg - the beach town near Adelaide. The weather was overcast but still warm, even if the breeze had a slight chill to it. We swam in the sea and snoozed on the beach - lovely and relaxing! For lunch we had a Nandos. Yes, they do have them here. Wasn't as good as the UK though but still pretty tasty. That night Transformers was on tv. It's based on a true story, y'know. Or at least, that's what we tried to tell the Kiwi guy. The guys ended up having a big night that night, proved when we woke up the next morning to find the Kiwi passed out on the sofa hugging a bottle of scotch, with no trousers on. We laughed at him. A lot.
For those of us sober/not hungover (two German girls and a couple of English guys) it was back to the beach. We cycled there as Adelaide City Council does free bike hire. They were bizarre bikes - old fashioned looking black ones with a basket on the front and to brake you had to pedal backwards. But we got down to Glenelg fine and all of us fell asleep on the beach! On the way back one of the girls got a flat tyre so we had to walk over the half the way but it wasn't too bad. Just very hot. That night everyone in the hostel (practically) went out for a pub crawl led by the Aussie guy that was staying there. It was a fun evening which ended with a few of us in 'Hungry Jacks' - basically Burger King but there was already a brand out here by that name and they refused to sell to the American company. We were in bed by 3am.
The next morning I had breakfast before being dropped off at the train station by Monty, one of the Irish lads, to catch The Ghan up to Alice Springs. Was a little late but made it! Woo, another overnight train journey begins.
My hostel was amazing. It was tiny and homely, with most of the residents having lived there at least a month if not longer. They gave us a free breakfast of fresh-made pancakes every morning!! Everyone was very friendly and my first afternoon I went down to West Beach with two Irish guys and two English guys for a swim and a kick around. Had a mild heart-attack after seeing black fins in the water but thankfully they were just dolphins. The difference? Dolphins go up-and-down while sharks just go straight (and you'll probably never see the shark until it bites you - isn't that comforting?!).
The next day was St. Patricks Day and with a strong Irish presence at the hostel it was also an interesting day! A group of us tried to get to the beach with four of us squeezed in the back of a car only to be pulled over by the police and escorted back to the hostel before we'd even driven five minutes! With that plan scuttled we ended up sitting out the back of the hostel with a couple of beers until going on to an Irish Pub that evening. The Australians do love their St. Paddy's Day here! The place was packed with people dressed in green and drinking Guinness. It was a fun evening.
On the Thursday I met up with Esther again and we went to the Zoo. They've just going two pandas in - Wang Wang and Funi - who are incredibly popular and have been made into cartoon characters. Got creeped out in the reptile house (nice to see all the lovely things that can kill you) and tried to spot the tigers but they were hiding. The monkeys were pretty funny though and there was the tiniest baby meercat ever! Talk about aw! The following day the two of us caught the tram out to Glenelg - the beach town near Adelaide. The weather was overcast but still warm, even if the breeze had a slight chill to it. We swam in the sea and snoozed on the beach - lovely and relaxing! For lunch we had a Nandos. Yes, they do have them here. Wasn't as good as the UK though but still pretty tasty. That night Transformers was on tv. It's based on a true story, y'know. Or at least, that's what we tried to tell the Kiwi guy. The guys ended up having a big night that night, proved when we woke up the next morning to find the Kiwi passed out on the sofa hugging a bottle of scotch, with no trousers on. We laughed at him. A lot.
For those of us sober/not hungover (two German girls and a couple of English guys) it was back to the beach. We cycled there as Adelaide City Council does free bike hire. They were bizarre bikes - old fashioned looking black ones with a basket on the front and to brake you had to pedal backwards. But we got down to Glenelg fine and all of us fell asleep on the beach! On the way back one of the girls got a flat tyre so we had to walk over the half the way but it wasn't too bad. Just very hot. That night everyone in the hostel (practically) went out for a pub crawl led by the Aussie guy that was staying there. It was a fun evening which ended with a few of us in 'Hungry Jacks' - basically Burger King but there was already a brand out here by that name and they refused to sell to the American company. We were in bed by 3am.
The next morning I had breakfast before being dropped off at the train station by Monty, one of the Irish lads, to catch The Ghan up to Alice Springs. Was a little late but made it! Woo, another overnight train journey begins.
Sunday 4 April 2010
Perth and the Indian Pacific to Adelaide
I touched down in Australia at 2pm after a lovely flight that had involved me watching both "The Blind Side" and "Up In The Air" while chatting to the English lady next to me. She was called Chris and had been living in Perth for the past four years and was surprised to find I was travelling by myself. She asked me how I was getting from the airport to the city, as it's quite far out, and I had to confess I had no idea! I think she felt sorry for me as she offered me a lift. Or rather, insisted on giving me a lift! We got through passport control, passed the sniffer dogs to collect our luggage. I was convinced I was going to be searched because, after answering one immigration officers questions another one sidled up to me as he'd overheard I'd been in Vietnam and was very curious. But they just waved me straight through without even x-raying my bag again. We met Chris' husband and I was dropped off outside my hostel in the city centre. They were really lovely!
The hostel I was staying at was "The Old Swan Barracks" and is basically an old army barracks, complete with Victorian-era facade. Looked quite cool and was so big! It has a kitchen. I think the emphasis on Australia is that you cook in hostels. Oh dear. I have to feed myself again. Good job there was a BBQ at the hostel that evening! Yum yum.
I went for a walk into town the next morning and bumped into a guy staying at my hostel - a South African called Alwyn who is currently in the British Army. We had a look around and then headed off to the beach for the afternoon as it was 40 degrees and I wanted a swim. Stopped off at a Woolworths - here it's a supermarket - and grabbed some sandwich-making stuff for a picknic and caught the train to Cottesloe. The beach is beautiful. White sand and the clear blue Indian Ocean. Gorgeous! We met a couple of English girls there and chatted to them before all going to get an ice cream :D Cottesloe has an art exhibition on at the moment called "Sculptures by the Sea" so there was very odd art installations everywhere that just made the beach that bit more interesting. We stayed to watch the sun set over the ocean before heading back to the hostel and spending the evening sitting outside with a group of people just chatting away.
My second full day in the land of down under I visited Fremantle (or Freo as it's known locally) because I'd heard so much about it. While it was a nice place I must confess I was a little disappointed by it, as it didn't appear to be anything special. Perhaps it was because the weather was overcast and it all looked a little gray... I stayed long enough to have a look around the markets and to get come Cold Rock ice cream (design your own basically - I went for honeycombe ice cream with added cookie dough! Mmmmm) before returning to Cottesloe for lunch and then falling asleep on the beach. Ooops. That evening was spent once again sitting outside of the hostel eating carrots and chatting to a Maori guy that played professional rugby league for a French team. The hostel is nice but area it's in is a little rough (as proved the previous night by a Scottish guy getting into a fight with a Kenyan right outside the front door - two hospitalisations and three arrests followed). As we were sitting there a rather drunk Irishman stumbled passed singing loudly and handed us all a bread roll. Random, and highly amusing.
Having only spent three days in Perth I felt it was long enough and was glad I'd booked myself on the Indian Pacific to leave that Sunday morning. Finding my way to the station didn't prove too difficult and I actually got really excited when I arrived to see the gleaming silver Indian Pacific sitting happily at the platform. I checked my backpack into the luggage compartment and then settled in to the seat that would be my 'home' for the next three days. There was a lot of leg room and luckily it reclines quite a way, but it was quite narrow so sleeping proved to be interesting. I was next to the window so I was extra happy. There was no one next to me for the first part of the journey and I got talking to a lovely English girl across the aisle from me, Esther. We had dinner that evening in the dining cart and were joined by a girl called Jo, from Scotland. The food isn't as expensive as I was expecting, but most of it is microwaved meals and small portions. We watched the sunset from the dining cart and saw lots of emus! But no kangaroos. At 10.30pm we had a couple of hours stop in Kalgoolie, a famous mining town in the bush. We had a quick walk around but at this time of night it was mostly deserted. The only places open were the bars and suffice to say, as fully clothed women, we would not really have been welcome in them! When we returned to the train the seat next to me had been filled by a lady from Kalgoolie who is completely mad, and more than a little strange. Luckily she didn't talk much that evening and I managed to curl up and sleep.
The whole of the Monday was spent on the train. Most of the morning Esther, Jo and I sat in the dining cart trying to spot kangaroos. We only saw three and were very disappointed. Jo said she wanted to see wild camels, and no sooner had she said that than some appeared out of the window. We spent the rest of the morning camel-spotting, much to the amusement of some of the other guests. We were travelling through the Nullarbor along the longest straight stretch of railway in the world. 478kms without a bend. Not even a little one! At lunchtime we stopped at a 'town' called Cook. It isn't really a town. Mostly it's desert. It has a population of five (not to mention five billion flies) and we had a walk around the school - which isn't in use - and the souviner shop which must rely solely on these twice weekly tourist trains. Very odd place. Mind you, it wasn't any odder than some of the people I met on the train! Apart from my lady from Kalgoolie (who said she emphasised with the women from the film 'Misery', yes, the one who broke the guy's ankles), there was a bikie from Melbourne who was part of the Comancheros biker gang (and if you think biker gangs are just groups of guys who happen to ride around on motorbikes think again - they're basically the criminal gangs that run mostly Melbourne and are a big issue down here!) who tried to assure me that while he'd been in Perth for 'bikie business' it had been completely legal... And a part-Scilian, part-Lebanese guy from Sydney with half a metal jaw due to a rigged boxing fight who definitely had been part of Sydney's criminal underworld. He offered me a place to stay in Sydney and was lovely, even if he did have a bit of a dodgy past. Oh dear.
We arrived in Adelaide at 7am the next morning, literally with the sunrise, and stumbled off the train to try and find our way to the hostels. Esther and I were staying quite near each other so we dropped our bags off before heading out to explore Adelaide.
The hostel I was staying at was "The Old Swan Barracks" and is basically an old army barracks, complete with Victorian-era facade. Looked quite cool and was so big! It has a kitchen. I think the emphasis on Australia is that you cook in hostels. Oh dear. I have to feed myself again. Good job there was a BBQ at the hostel that evening! Yum yum.
I went for a walk into town the next morning and bumped into a guy staying at my hostel - a South African called Alwyn who is currently in the British Army. We had a look around and then headed off to the beach for the afternoon as it was 40 degrees and I wanted a swim. Stopped off at a Woolworths - here it's a supermarket - and grabbed some sandwich-making stuff for a picknic and caught the train to Cottesloe. The beach is beautiful. White sand and the clear blue Indian Ocean. Gorgeous! We met a couple of English girls there and chatted to them before all going to get an ice cream :D Cottesloe has an art exhibition on at the moment called "Sculptures by the Sea" so there was very odd art installations everywhere that just made the beach that bit more interesting. We stayed to watch the sun set over the ocean before heading back to the hostel and spending the evening sitting outside with a group of people just chatting away.
My second full day in the land of down under I visited Fremantle (or Freo as it's known locally) because I'd heard so much about it. While it was a nice place I must confess I was a little disappointed by it, as it didn't appear to be anything special. Perhaps it was because the weather was overcast and it all looked a little gray... I stayed long enough to have a look around the markets and to get come Cold Rock ice cream (design your own basically - I went for honeycombe ice cream with added cookie dough! Mmmmm) before returning to Cottesloe for lunch and then falling asleep on the beach. Ooops. That evening was spent once again sitting outside of the hostel eating carrots and chatting to a Maori guy that played professional rugby league for a French team. The hostel is nice but area it's in is a little rough (as proved the previous night by a Scottish guy getting into a fight with a Kenyan right outside the front door - two hospitalisations and three arrests followed). As we were sitting there a rather drunk Irishman stumbled passed singing loudly and handed us all a bread roll. Random, and highly amusing.
Having only spent three days in Perth I felt it was long enough and was glad I'd booked myself on the Indian Pacific to leave that Sunday morning. Finding my way to the station didn't prove too difficult and I actually got really excited when I arrived to see the gleaming silver Indian Pacific sitting happily at the platform. I checked my backpack into the luggage compartment and then settled in to the seat that would be my 'home' for the next three days. There was a lot of leg room and luckily it reclines quite a way, but it was quite narrow so sleeping proved to be interesting. I was next to the window so I was extra happy. There was no one next to me for the first part of the journey and I got talking to a lovely English girl across the aisle from me, Esther. We had dinner that evening in the dining cart and were joined by a girl called Jo, from Scotland. The food isn't as expensive as I was expecting, but most of it is microwaved meals and small portions. We watched the sunset from the dining cart and saw lots of emus! But no kangaroos. At 10.30pm we had a couple of hours stop in Kalgoolie, a famous mining town in the bush. We had a quick walk around but at this time of night it was mostly deserted. The only places open were the bars and suffice to say, as fully clothed women, we would not really have been welcome in them! When we returned to the train the seat next to me had been filled by a lady from Kalgoolie who is completely mad, and more than a little strange. Luckily she didn't talk much that evening and I managed to curl up and sleep.
The whole of the Monday was spent on the train. Most of the morning Esther, Jo and I sat in the dining cart trying to spot kangaroos. We only saw three and were very disappointed. Jo said she wanted to see wild camels, and no sooner had she said that than some appeared out of the window. We spent the rest of the morning camel-spotting, much to the amusement of some of the other guests. We were travelling through the Nullarbor along the longest straight stretch of railway in the world. 478kms without a bend. Not even a little one! At lunchtime we stopped at a 'town' called Cook. It isn't really a town. Mostly it's desert. It has a population of five (not to mention five billion flies) and we had a walk around the school - which isn't in use - and the souviner shop which must rely solely on these twice weekly tourist trains. Very odd place. Mind you, it wasn't any odder than some of the people I met on the train! Apart from my lady from Kalgoolie (who said she emphasised with the women from the film 'Misery', yes, the one who broke the guy's ankles), there was a bikie from Melbourne who was part of the Comancheros biker gang (and if you think biker gangs are just groups of guys who happen to ride around on motorbikes think again - they're basically the criminal gangs that run mostly Melbourne and are a big issue down here!) who tried to assure me that while he'd been in Perth for 'bikie business' it had been completely legal... And a part-Scilian, part-Lebanese guy from Sydney with half a metal jaw due to a rigged boxing fight who definitely had been part of Sydney's criminal underworld. He offered me a place to stay in Sydney and was lovely, even if he did have a bit of a dodgy past. Oh dear.
We arrived in Adelaide at 7am the next morning, literally with the sunrise, and stumbled off the train to try and find our way to the hostels. Esther and I were staying quite near each other so we dropped our bags off before heading out to explore Adelaide.
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