Aussie adventures

After leaving Perth last Monday we had an afternoon and evening in Darwin.  Sad to say we didn't think much of it -it reminded me of Gran Canaria, when i went there aged 18, just lots of tacky bars and nowhere nice to eat and no interesting sights (took ages to find the Darwin Cathedral as it turns out to be a tiny chapel... and we eventually found out that the town is named after Charles Darwin because it was 'discovered' by a chap called Wickham - I think - who once sailed with Darwin on an exploratory voyage).  You can't swim in the sea there because they have deadly box jellyfish so they have an artificial lagoon thingie instead.  It's very artificial though so not much fun.  On seeing a sign for the local deckchair cinema we thought a reprieve was on the cards, but it was closed for rainy season.  Typical.

Thankfully we only stayed overnight and headed off to the Ghan train in the morning which was 24 hours from Wed morning to Thurs morning (really good fun, although I suspect Poirot would have opted for the platinum service sleeper cabins, while we were in the cheapie red seated section!).  The train was massive, although not it's maximum size, and we had a few hours stop in Katherine, so we took a bus over to the Katherine gorge national park and walked up to the viewing point over the river - beautiful, despite the massively high humidity level!  


When the train arrived in Alice Springs we decided not to stay in the town itself - not a very inviting place, at the moment renowned for the antisocial behaviour of many of the local aboriginal people.  They have been given pots of money by the Australian government (who feel guilty about killing lots of their ancestors when they stole the country from them, so have given them back ownership of a lot of central Oz, and now re-lease bits back for towns, airports, etc.) but as a result they are rolling in it and many of them spend most of their time lounging around under trees getting drunk all day and vandalising shops and public spaces at night.  Not very nice.  The local community have brought in some strict alcohol sales controls and are trying to improve school attendance (since drunken parents don't really care whether their children bother to go) - all a bit of a mess and very sad.  


Anyway, we hired a car instead and some camping gear - it's over 400km from Alice to Ayers Rock, so not exactly an easy day-trip, so we went for a road trip instead.  After having to change the car because the first one stopped working almost immediately (the replacement was a big 4x4 which was pretty good for outback driving) we made it down to Yulara on Thursday night - it's the only authorised stopping place within the aboriginal-owned national park that Ayers Rock stands in.  The camping kit was swags instead of a tent - an interesting Australian idea, they are basically like have a Barbour jacket material sleeping bag with a little padded matress in it that you put your normal sleeping bag inside.  Trouble for me was that this lovely way of sleeping under the stars also means sleeping with the local rodents, spiders, insects, etc. free to run across you and try to share your bed.  I had a very sleepless night!  Woke Tom several times with my flailing around and yelling about the wildlife.  Shame.


On the upside, for once in my life I was happy to get up before sunrise, and we made the drive to Ayers Rock to watch the sunrise there.  It was beautiful.  Really amazing - I am so glad to have visited.  We walked all around the base of the rock (about 12km) before a picnic breakfast at the visitors centre (Nan would be proud - a very pretty backdrop!).  The downside was that they had swarms of flies there, constantly dive bombing our faces (weirdly even when eating they were more interested in our eyes and ears then our food) which was quite annoying.  


Next we wanted to head to King's Canyon (another 400km) so another day of driving to get to King's Canyon Resort before dark (again, the authorised staying place in the national park there - all of these places have cheap-ish camping spots, and really expensive hotels to choose from).  This site was nice and we fitted in a swim before making carbonara on our primus stove.  That night our camp was invaded by a dingo (wild dog) who eventually gave up when he couldn't get to our food.  I slept in the car, Tom was brave and stayed outside.  I had a much better sleep that night!  On Saturday we went for a walk around the rim of King's Canyon.  Having initially been not very impressed by its size our attitudes totally changed as we trekked around.  It was beautiful red rock again and a fabulous space, with a creek and plenty of vegetation in the bottom.  When we got all the way to the top end of the canyon we found the 'Garden of Eden' section which had a really gorgeous swimming hole, surrounded by huge rock walls and warmed by the sun, bliss (really glad i learned to swim!!).  


After the canyon walk we made our way back to Alice Springs via the Mereenie Loop (a 'road' which is not surfaced, so only passable because we had the 4x4 - a bumpy ride, but much shorter way back which was fab as the distances here are incredible, and very monotonous to drive, with the red dust everywhere and a surprising amount of greenish scrub vegetation around too, nice view though).  That night we retreated to a cabin at the local campsite.  Don't think we'll be rushing into another swag weekend!  

Sunday we flew out to Brisbane, which is back on the coast - hooray!  Ben, my friend from LMH days, came to meet us at the airport and brought us back to their flat in Taringa.  Sadly Tilly his wife isn't here as she is on a 3 month secondment with her engineering firm in Singapore.  But Ben's sister Hannah is here for a few months working during her own travels so it's nice to see her, and Hamish who is a fellow post-Oxford Chemist we met last time Ben and Tilly were home and visited us.  Ben made (from scratch) a fabulous ragu and fresh gnocchi for dinner, with apple crumble afters - wonderful to be back in a homely place, especially one with amazing food!  Yesterday Tom and I spent some time planning for New Zealand - altered our bookings so that we are not now spending time in Christchurch, which seems more sensible.  

In the afternoon yesterday we went exploring Brisbane, having a good walk around.  It's a really lovely city, and remarkably free of visible flood damage already, although the botanic gardens were only half open as they are fixing things up there, and a few other places by the river were the same.  It's really impressive though.  On recommendation from Hannah and Hamish we headed to the Modern Art Museum where they have all kinds of mad installations.  One of them is a huge table full of all shapes and sizes of white lego blocks.  There are a series of amazing buildings made from the white lego already there and the idea is that anyone can add another.  This distracted us for so long that the museum was then shutting so we missed loads of the rest of it (my contribution was a totally symmetrical cottage, apart from the chimney stack on the top, proving that nothing can be perfect, or somesuch, am thinking about Turner prize entry when we get home...Tom produced a rather impressive elephant, what a team!).  Last night we headed out for dinner - a steak place where the meat was fabulous.  


Anyway, must go as today we are picking up a car and heading up to the Australia Zoo - apparently a homage to Steve Erwin, ex-crocodile hunter extraordinaire.  Tonight we're thinking of heading to one of the Brisbane comedy festival shows in town.  Tomorrow it's the gold coast in search of a beach and maybe a water park, then Ben is hosting a big BBQ back here so will get back in time to contribute a sticky toffee pudding, and Tom is thinking maybe we should do some Pimms too.  All good.