This tour wasn't my favorite but I got to sit back and relax, basically it was all about driving 1300 kms in 3 days!
Our tour guide was a little strange, he called himself Sauce and here is the reason way... his family name is De Soyres and it s to make Soy Sauce, yeah I know worst reason for nickname ever!
A few more ppl joined our tour while a few left (the Danish Boys, the Scottish Couple and the Canadian Guy) and we got on boards 2 more japanese, 5 more englishs: dani, dom, becka, linda and Mark and 1 more french from Quimper.
(La Bretagne en Force ahaha)
The first night we stopped at a kettle Station, it was pretty funky to be surrounded by cows, chickens, kangaouroos in the middle of the Outback..
Second night we reached Katherine Gorge, the highlight of this tour!
But during those 2 days we stopped at a few places such as the Devils Marbles (some more rock formation), Daly Waters Pub made of travellers junk but very funny ;)), Mataranka where we swam in some hot springs and everybody agreed with this heat it would have been nice to swim in cooler water.
The last day, 2 to 3 hours canoeing in the Katherine Gorge: Amazing! the first gorge was absolutely beautiful.. My arms ached for the next 2 days!!! lol
In the afternoon we took the road to Darwin stopped to see the Buffalo from Crocodile Dunde, I know so exciting and we finally got to Darwin at 6pm.
Darwin: sun, palm trees, pool in the hostel, feeling of holidays again lol
Anyway we all headed for our free meal at the Vic (Backpacked bar a must do in Darwin), anyway what was supposed to be an easy night to be on form for kakadu the next day turned out to be another of those crazy nights and on this I blame Mark and the danish Boys and also the free Drinks we won lol Damn you all I was in bits the next day!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Adelaide to Alice Springs - 6 days - 4th to 9th June 2008
On the road again, to start with the beginning, here are the people I am travelling with:
UK: Becka
OZ: Megan, Dan & Karen
Scotland: Zoe & Allie
NZ: Margaret
Japan: Hitshko
Honk Kong: Sharon
Ireland: Claire
Holland: Elia
Denmark: Heine, Hendrik, Soarsen
Our tour guide: James is an exentric Aussie, in love with his country and its culture.
We left Adelaide at 6.30am with as the last time 2 hours to nap on the bus before our first breakfast stop.
The first day was mainly driving.. to our destination: Parachilna, we stoped at a few sights to discover some aboriginal workart. This drive was pretty quiet, we got to discover a bit more about each of us with our guide asking the right questions when we had to present each others such as why we decided to come to OZ, what we would bring on a desert island and what we would like to change in the world.
We finally made it to Parachilna, a small village: 9 inhabitants (no no there is no mispelling here it was really nine) where every night of the week apart from Tuesdays they get travellers like us so it can become quite animated at night :D
The most exciting things happening there are the Sunset at 5.20Pm (known as one of the best in Australia) and a train passing by at 10.20pm with its 46 wagons. Oh and they also have a local pub: la prairie.
As we traveled to Wilpena Pound, the vegetation becomes a lot more dry with smaller trees, rocks and sands. The weather isn't great at all as it s actually raining, of course that happens once a year and it has to be when I am there! so we had to cancel our walk through the Flinders range for a shorter walk (so glad I took this raincoat someone left at the hostel in Sydney :))
We are back at our accomodation pretty early, great excuse for a nap and a bit of reading, after dinner we mainly played a few card games as the Danish Boys carried with them a set of Uno cards and a set of Porn Cards (no comment guys!)
The next morning we are up at 4am for our drive to Coober Peddy (600 kms) to be on time to do a Mine Tour and for Sunset.
Coober Peddy is more famous for being the Capital of Opal in Austrlia, during summer the temperature reaches 50 degrees. People live mainly underground.
Before a law came out to stop people digging in town for Opal, they could end up digging in someone's house!
I was really glad to see this city, it is wicked in a way it's so different from anything you would ever see.
The town is mainly populated with Aboriginals.
We did our mine tour, but didn't see any sunset as it was too cloudy.
The next morning we left Coober Peddy for... Uluru. The excitement was rising up (well for me) as in a few hours I will finally get to see Uluru, Ayers Rock, the Red Centre from my own eyes :D.
As usual a long drive (another 600 kms) animated with our tour guide with some quizzes or little games such as Bingo Plates to keep people a little more awake than usual (ah yeah I didn't mention yet but I fell asleep about 10 000 times on my tour bus... for sure from now I can fall asleep anywhere lol).
A quick stop by the campsite to collect Champagne and Crackers.
Sunset at Uluru: celebration time (we made it lol) and it is sunny just a few clouds here and there :D. It was quite impressive as you could see the color of the rock changing as the sun went down, same effect the next day as the sun went up (only a lot more impressive it went from dark orange/red to bright orange: unbelievable).
It is also our first night camping and it s freezing cold so we all went around the fire, James played a bit of didjireedoo (aboriginal music instrument) and we drank to celebrate this great day.. I decided to sleep outside to enjoy the beauty of the stars, a sky like you don't see so frequently.. It s cold but it's woth it and comfi in the swag :D
The next day we walked around the rock for 2 hours, not much to see appart from a few aboriginal paintings. Sorry Ian I didn't get that picture of me on the top of the rock as aboriginal don't really like when people climb up of and also because about 40 people have died since that climb is open...
We then headed to the Olgas: Kata Tjuta, this sight isn't as open to public and what is happening there is still kept very secret. It is as impressive as Uluru only instead of 1 big rock it looks like loads of smaller Ulurus stuck together.
We camped in Kings Canyon this time I decided to sleep in the tent oh yeah it felt even colder outside than the previous night...
We did a 3 hours walk in Kings Canyon which was absolutely amazing!
After this walk we went for lunch and took the road back to Alice Springs another 4 hours drive till we get there... We ended up breaking down due to a lack of fuel but got quickly sorted thanks to another Adventure Tour Bus :D
We got to Alice Springs around 6pm, 1 hour to get ready (well I had fuck all left to wear after those 6 days lol) then we headed to Annie's Place a very well known backpacker Bar and Hostel.
While my group was very laid back / chilled out over the last 6 days. That night was absolutely madness with some of them dancing on the tables (no no not me I was taking pictures instead as for look what you did last night ahahah) and everybody getting way too drunk (well $10 for a jug of beer, $4.50 for a shot that s a winner ;)) including our tour guide. I ended up staying longer than everybody for talking too much with other backpackers or simply not being tired lol and by the time I patiently waited for a taxi to take me home, a police car pulled over and offered me a free lift back to my hostel... Nice one :D
Alice Springs counts 25000 people with a lot of Aboriginals. I didn't feel too secure there walking by myself. The Off License don't open before 2Pm, you can't buy more than 2 litres of Alcohol a day. This law is due from the excess of Aboriginal ppl, apparently they used to receive their Welfare Money every Tuesday and would spend it all in booze so the government had to close all the Liquor Stores on Tuesdays... Not sure if that was in all Northern Territory or in Tenant Creek (we stop there on my next tour).
Anyway there wasn't much to do so I spent my 2 days by the pool as the temperature was reaching 25 degrees and I started preparing my tan :D.
UK: Becka
OZ: Megan, Dan & Karen
Scotland: Zoe & Allie
NZ: Margaret
Japan: Hitshko
Honk Kong: Sharon
Ireland: Claire
Holland: Elia
Denmark: Heine, Hendrik, Soarsen
Our tour guide: James is an exentric Aussie, in love with his country and its culture.
We left Adelaide at 6.30am with as the last time 2 hours to nap on the bus before our first breakfast stop.
The first day was mainly driving.. to our destination: Parachilna, we stoped at a few sights to discover some aboriginal workart. This drive was pretty quiet, we got to discover a bit more about each of us with our guide asking the right questions when we had to present each others such as why we decided to come to OZ, what we would bring on a desert island and what we would like to change in the world.
We finally made it to Parachilna, a small village: 9 inhabitants (no no there is no mispelling here it was really nine) where every night of the week apart from Tuesdays they get travellers like us so it can become quite animated at night :D
The most exciting things happening there are the Sunset at 5.20Pm (known as one of the best in Australia) and a train passing by at 10.20pm with its 46 wagons. Oh and they also have a local pub: la prairie.
As we traveled to Wilpena Pound, the vegetation becomes a lot more dry with smaller trees, rocks and sands. The weather isn't great at all as it s actually raining, of course that happens once a year and it has to be when I am there! so we had to cancel our walk through the Flinders range for a shorter walk (so glad I took this raincoat someone left at the hostel in Sydney :))
We are back at our accomodation pretty early, great excuse for a nap and a bit of reading, after dinner we mainly played a few card games as the Danish Boys carried with them a set of Uno cards and a set of Porn Cards (no comment guys!)
The next morning we are up at 4am for our drive to Coober Peddy (600 kms) to be on time to do a Mine Tour and for Sunset.
Coober Peddy is more famous for being the Capital of Opal in Austrlia, during summer the temperature reaches 50 degrees. People live mainly underground.
Before a law came out to stop people digging in town for Opal, they could end up digging in someone's house!
I was really glad to see this city, it is wicked in a way it's so different from anything you would ever see.
The town is mainly populated with Aboriginals.
We did our mine tour, but didn't see any sunset as it was too cloudy.
The next morning we left Coober Peddy for... Uluru. The excitement was rising up (well for me) as in a few hours I will finally get to see Uluru, Ayers Rock, the Red Centre from my own eyes :D.
As usual a long drive (another 600 kms) animated with our tour guide with some quizzes or little games such as Bingo Plates to keep people a little more awake than usual (ah yeah I didn't mention yet but I fell asleep about 10 000 times on my tour bus... for sure from now I can fall asleep anywhere lol).
A quick stop by the campsite to collect Champagne and Crackers.
Sunset at Uluru: celebration time (we made it lol) and it is sunny just a few clouds here and there :D. It was quite impressive as you could see the color of the rock changing as the sun went down, same effect the next day as the sun went up (only a lot more impressive it went from dark orange/red to bright orange: unbelievable).
It is also our first night camping and it s freezing cold so we all went around the fire, James played a bit of didjireedoo (aboriginal music instrument) and we drank to celebrate this great day.. I decided to sleep outside to enjoy the beauty of the stars, a sky like you don't see so frequently.. It s cold but it's woth it and comfi in the swag :D
The next day we walked around the rock for 2 hours, not much to see appart from a few aboriginal paintings. Sorry Ian I didn't get that picture of me on the top of the rock as aboriginal don't really like when people climb up of and also because about 40 people have died since that climb is open...
We then headed to the Olgas: Kata Tjuta, this sight isn't as open to public and what is happening there is still kept very secret. It is as impressive as Uluru only instead of 1 big rock it looks like loads of smaller Ulurus stuck together.
We camped in Kings Canyon this time I decided to sleep in the tent oh yeah it felt even colder outside than the previous night...
We did a 3 hours walk in Kings Canyon which was absolutely amazing!
After this walk we went for lunch and took the road back to Alice Springs another 4 hours drive till we get there... We ended up breaking down due to a lack of fuel but got quickly sorted thanks to another Adventure Tour Bus :D
We got to Alice Springs around 6pm, 1 hour to get ready (well I had fuck all left to wear after those 6 days lol) then we headed to Annie's Place a very well known backpacker Bar and Hostel.
While my group was very laid back / chilled out over the last 6 days. That night was absolutely madness with some of them dancing on the tables (no no not me I was taking pictures instead as for look what you did last night ahahah) and everybody getting way too drunk (well $10 for a jug of beer, $4.50 for a shot that s a winner ;)) including our tour guide. I ended up staying longer than everybody for talking too much with other backpackers or simply not being tired lol and by the time I patiently waited for a taxi to take me home, a police car pulled over and offered me a free lift back to my hostel... Nice one :D
Alice Springs counts 25000 people with a lot of Aboriginals. I didn't feel too secure there walking by myself. The Off License don't open before 2Pm, you can't buy more than 2 litres of Alcohol a day. This law is due from the excess of Aboriginal ppl, apparently they used to receive their Welfare Money every Tuesday and would spend it all in booze so the government had to close all the Liquor Stores on Tuesdays... Not sure if that was in all Northern Territory or in Tenant Creek (we stop there on my next tour).
Anyway there wasn't much to do so I spent my 2 days by the pool as the temperature was reaching 25 degrees and I started preparing my tan :D.
Melbourne to Alice Springs - 3 days - 31st of May to 2nd June 2008
After my 2 hours sleep, I wake up in a rush at 6.00 am instead of 5.30am forcing me to take a cab to my pick up point.
Starting my tour at 7am, I hope on the bus, make myself comfortable despite the bus being freezing cold and get a few minutes nap in the first 2 hours we drive outside of Melbourne towards Surf City. Located just a few minutes before the Great Ocean Road, it's a good spot to purchase any brand clothing (surf brands) such as Rip Curls, Quicksilver and so...
It's also the occasion to meet up with the rest of the people travelling with me on this tour... so we are 11: 1 NZ: Greame, 1 Switz: Daniel, 1 Honk Kong: Sharon, 1 Germany: Korina, 1 English: Alistaire, 2 Deutshe: Paul & Lilia, 1 Korea and 1 Japan, whom I forgot their names (sorry girls), 1 Japan Miji and meee :D.
We started our Great Ocean Road drive, stoped at a few picture spot such as a sign we are entering the Great Ocean Road, a few nice beaches with great waves... home of the surfers, a bit later on we also stoped to see some koalas.. Those little cute things don't give much of a show as they sleep all day long and the only reason they would move would be to change their position to sleep or eat a few leaves from the Gumtrees where they are sleeping. In the Afternoon we stopped in the rainforest of Otway National Park before heading for sunset over the 12 apostles, we were really lucky we get a real multicolored sunset: pink, orange and purple colors :D
The following day we did a few stop at some rock and cliffs formation such as London Bridge, Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs and the Lorch Ard Cave, a story involving a ferry sanking in the 19th century and only 2 survivors who staied for a few days in this cave. I also did a helicopter ride over the 12 apostles which was actualy very amazing, first helicopter ride hopefully not last, I got a great great view and some nice pics :D
In the afternoon, we climbed the Pinnacle for 1 and 1/2 hour to get a splendid view over the Grampians :D.
On our last day we woke up really early to get a good sunrise over the Grampians, walked down to have a better look on the Mackenzie walk and finally did a bit of exercise and climbed Hollow Mountain... another 5 hours drive was waiting for us in the afternoon till we could get to Adelaide, we stopped a few times on the way checked out some Emu and walabis and also some Albinos Kangooroos.
This tour was pretty cool, the Great Ocean Road is certainly a thing not to be missed when you get to Asutralia, it's really pretty I wish I had done it during summer time though. My group were really nice and I was lucky I had Paul my drinking buddy to help me finishing those 4 litres of goone on the second night :D
Once we arrived in Adelaide I volounteered to cook dinner for the rest of the bus, Chicken Curry and Mango which cost each of us only $2 and we all were very full after it :D
Adelaide was alright, unfortunately I was pretty tired from those 3 days so didn't get to see much I walked around for a while and ended up playing pool for the rest of the day.. We also experienced something pretty strange for a Tuesday night, apart from McDonalds there is almost noway you can get cheap food in this city after 10PM .. for some weird reason the supermarket would close at 9pm to reopen at midnight... strange strange :D
Anyway a day is never enough to get a good idea on a city and I was more focused on what was waiting for me next....
Starting my tour at 7am, I hope on the bus, make myself comfortable despite the bus being freezing cold and get a few minutes nap in the first 2 hours we drive outside of Melbourne towards Surf City. Located just a few minutes before the Great Ocean Road, it's a good spot to purchase any brand clothing (surf brands) such as Rip Curls, Quicksilver and so...
It's also the occasion to meet up with the rest of the people travelling with me on this tour... so we are 11: 1 NZ: Greame, 1 Switz: Daniel, 1 Honk Kong: Sharon, 1 Germany: Korina, 1 English: Alistaire, 2 Deutshe: Paul & Lilia, 1 Korea and 1 Japan, whom I forgot their names (sorry girls), 1 Japan Miji and meee :D.
We started our Great Ocean Road drive, stoped at a few picture spot such as a sign we are entering the Great Ocean Road, a few nice beaches with great waves... home of the surfers, a bit later on we also stoped to see some koalas.. Those little cute things don't give much of a show as they sleep all day long and the only reason they would move would be to change their position to sleep or eat a few leaves from the Gumtrees where they are sleeping. In the Afternoon we stopped in the rainforest of Otway National Park before heading for sunset over the 12 apostles, we were really lucky we get a real multicolored sunset: pink, orange and purple colors :D
The following day we did a few stop at some rock and cliffs formation such as London Bridge, Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs and the Lorch Ard Cave, a story involving a ferry sanking in the 19th century and only 2 survivors who staied for a few days in this cave. I also did a helicopter ride over the 12 apostles which was actualy very amazing, first helicopter ride hopefully not last, I got a great great view and some nice pics :D
In the afternoon, we climbed the Pinnacle for 1 and 1/2 hour to get a splendid view over the Grampians :D.
On our last day we woke up really early to get a good sunrise over the Grampians, walked down to have a better look on the Mackenzie walk and finally did a bit of exercise and climbed Hollow Mountain... another 5 hours drive was waiting for us in the afternoon till we could get to Adelaide, we stopped a few times on the way checked out some Emu and walabis and also some Albinos Kangooroos.
This tour was pretty cool, the Great Ocean Road is certainly a thing not to be missed when you get to Asutralia, it's really pretty I wish I had done it during summer time though. My group were really nice and I was lucky I had Paul my drinking buddy to help me finishing those 4 litres of goone on the second night :D
Once we arrived in Adelaide I volounteered to cook dinner for the rest of the bus, Chicken Curry and Mango which cost each of us only $2 and we all were very full after it :D
Adelaide was alright, unfortunately I was pretty tired from those 3 days so didn't get to see much I walked around for a while and ended up playing pool for the rest of the day.. We also experienced something pretty strange for a Tuesday night, apart from McDonalds there is almost noway you can get cheap food in this city after 10PM .. for some weird reason the supermarket would close at 9pm to reopen at midnight... strange strange :D
Anyway a day is never enough to get a good idea on a city and I was more focused on what was waiting for me next....
Friday, June 20, 2008
Mebourne in 3 Days - 28 to 31st of May 2008
After a 12 hours bus journey between Sydney and Melbourne I arrived at the bus station where I got offered a free lift from a travel agency:(Az Travels) to my hostel... I will be staying for 3 nights at the Ritz for Backpackers located on Fitzroy Street in St Kilda. When I first walked in the hostel the first feeling I got was very similar to when I first went to the Wood Duck a small and cosy hostel, which is what I was hoping for :)... a bit tired from my bus journey I decided to head straight to bed and have a little nap before starting walking around the city.
Lucky I was to find some free pancakes left over from the free Morning Breakfast and hmm they actualy realy were yummi :D. Today I take it as my first day of holiday so easy and I walk mainly around St Kilda which would be the equivalent of Bondi in Sydney only less crowdy! There was a nice promenade along the beach and Fitzroy Street was full of little shops, it was really quiet mainly due to the fact we were in Winter! Once I am finished discovering this quiet beach village I headed back to the hostel and started meeting a few people from the hostel. Well as I am travelling by myself it's part of my daily life to meet new people ;). The next couple of days I walked around Melbourne City used the free bus which goes all around the city, went to the very famous Victoria s market where I bought: Nothing ;) discovered the amazing streets recommended by my Lonely Planet: Desgraves Street and Brunswick Street. Went out at night with few friends from the hostel... well holidays :D
I did hear a lot of Melbourne: You will love it, very nice city, much more human size than Sydney.. and it's really what I felt there. It's a city where the Culture and Arts are a lot more present than in Sydney nobody feels like they need to be someone and therefore have to own such things or wear such clothes. So Yeah Melbourne is getting into my Top 5 cities :D
Anyway back to my 3 days.. I had a really good time there it was a nice rest before starting my trip and after working like crazy over the past 2 months in Sydney. I met some great people, very friendly partied a bit too much the last night which meant 1 hour sleep before starting my 18 days bus tour to Darwin... (It sounded like a fun idea at that time ;))
Lucky I was to find some free pancakes left over from the free Morning Breakfast and hmm they actualy realy were yummi :D. Today I take it as my first day of holiday so easy and I walk mainly around St Kilda which would be the equivalent of Bondi in Sydney only less crowdy! There was a nice promenade along the beach and Fitzroy Street was full of little shops, it was really quiet mainly due to the fact we were in Winter! Once I am finished discovering this quiet beach village I headed back to the hostel and started meeting a few people from the hostel. Well as I am travelling by myself it's part of my daily life to meet new people ;). The next couple of days I walked around Melbourne City used the free bus which goes all around the city, went to the very famous Victoria s market where I bought: Nothing ;) discovered the amazing streets recommended by my Lonely Planet: Desgraves Street and Brunswick Street. Went out at night with few friends from the hostel... well holidays :D
I did hear a lot of Melbourne: You will love it, very nice city, much more human size than Sydney.. and it's really what I felt there. It's a city where the Culture and Arts are a lot more present than in Sydney nobody feels like they need to be someone and therefore have to own such things or wear such clothes. So Yeah Melbourne is getting into my Top 5 cities :D
Anyway back to my 3 days.. I had a really good time there it was a nice rest before starting my trip and after working like crazy over the past 2 months in Sydney. I met some great people, very friendly partied a bit too much the last night which meant 1 hour sleep before starting my 18 days bus tour to Darwin... (It sounded like a fun idea at that time ;))
Leaving Sydney - 27th of May 2008
The big day finally arrived... and my journey continues through Australia. It wasn't a real goodbye as I will be returning to Sydney at east twice before leaving Australia.
No leaving parties, just goodbye to Cindy who helped me so much since I first arrived at the Wood Duck Inn...
No leaving parties, just goodbye to Cindy who helped me so much since I first arrived at the Wood Duck Inn...
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