I have gone through airports without showing ID; I have ridden a camel; I have slept in a swag; I have seen the sunrise at Uluru; I have hiked to the top of the canyon that they climbed in drag in ‘Priscilla Queen of the Desert;’ I have had a drink called a cock-sucking cowboy; I have been dinosaur hunting; I have worn a full-body lycra suit; I have gone snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef; and I have been bungee jumping. And that isn’t even everything. It’s a long post… really long; it was a long and fantastical adventure. If you want the stories… read on. Maybe don’t try to read it all at once…
day 1: melbourne to alice springs You know you're traveling outside of the U.S. when you go through an entire airport without ever being asked to show ID. In the Melbourne airport we did not have our IDs checked one single time. We got our boarding passes from the self check-in machine (which did not even require you to insert a credit card). We weren't asked for ID when we checked our bags. Nor when we went through security. Nor when we boarded the plane.
We arrived in Alice Springs in the early afternoon. We arrived in the heat, in the red center, in the middle of nowhere. [Note for the family: I am * really * glad I did not do the ISOP Central Australia trip. They did what I did for three days in Central Australia but were driving to and from there for the other six days of their trip. Lame. See the picture above… there is nothing to see on the way except more of same forever.]
We checked in to the Melanka Backpackers and decided to walk along the trail that runs out past the edge of town and along the river. [Interesting fact: there is a ‘regatta’ in Alice Springs which entails running in the dry riverbed and carrying a canoe over ones head. It is the only boat race in the world which gets cancelled if the river * is * flowing.] We got a ways out the path and decided it was excruciatingly hot and we would turn back. But we paused to play with the self-timer on my camera and take some photos:
Here's another picture from our walk (not self-timed, obviously):
When we got back into town we figured we might as well walk around and see what there was to see. The entire town is based on tourism. There are restaurants, souvenir shops, internet cafes, and tour & rental companies. And then there are art galleries. Tons of them. At least 10 in the very small town; they’re all full of Aboriginal artwork. So we spent the rest of the afternoon looking at some of the most beautiful and incredible art pieces I have ever seen. I couldn't pinpoint for you exactly why this art was so visually appealing to me but it was, beyond most other works I have seen.
I don’t have any photos of the artwork but here is art from the town instead. This large statue is in front of the ‘second-hand’ store. Haha.
After that we just spent some time by the pool at the hostel. We met Laura, a woman from Italy who is traveling the world for five months... and was on our tour.
day 2: kata tjuta/valley of the winds The second day of our travels (Sunday) we began our three-day adventure tour. Our first stop was the Outback Camel Farm. I thought that we were going to have the opportunity to go on a camel ride through the desert... but we were only there for 15 minutes. Since I had been prepared to shell out some money for this experience I figured it couldn't hurt to pay the $5 for the quick in-the-yard camel ride. So I've ridden a camel. Check.
After this short stop we all clambered back into the bus and Buzz, our guide, said someone was going to have to move up front to chat with him. He half asked, half told us this was necessary. Clearly he didn't want to be bored. So... I moved up to the front and met Buzz, a key character for this first leg of our trip. Let me tell you a little bit about Buzz. Buzz has only been given the name 'Buzz' since he became a guide with Adventure Tours about a year ago. The name, however, represents a life-long interest. Buzz left school at 16 to become a beekeeper, which he then did successfully for five years until he gave it up and became a tour guide for Adventure Tours. Apparently he was at the point where the next step for him in beekeeping was going to start his own farm and business and he didn't want to be that settled because he wants to travel first. So he's been guiding for about a year and a half. Buzz' interest in bees is only the beginning of his knowledge of critters. Buzz was filled with an absolute plethora of knowledge about Australian wildlife (and more) and thoroughly enjoyed imparting this information to our eager ears. So while sitting in front with Buzz I discovered (by asking only after observing) that he could identify any Australian bird by sight (from pretty much any angle at any distance). I learned about the wedge-tailed hawk (which is the largest bird of pray in Australia, mates for life, and starves itself to death when its partner dies), discussed feral camels and what happens when trucks run into them, and gained heaps of information about the Australian outback desert.
We stopped for gas in Erldunda and were informed that this was the closest we would ever be to the exact center of Australia… which I think Buzz said was about 30km away.
After driving for a while more we were finally able to see, in a blue misty haze in the distance, Mt. Connor. This was the first of the massive rocks rising out of the desert we were to see. It was so incredibly hazy though that after Buzz first pointed it out on the skyline it literally took me five minutes to spot it. After some more driving we arrived at Kata Tjuta/Valley of the Winds where we did the base walk (7.4km). It was so incredibly hot I can't even begin to describe it to you. I could post a picture of Laura and I all sweaty but we're so sweaty and unattractive that I'm not gonna. It was hot. Promise. And there were more flies than I have ever experienced in my life. We tried to by fly-net hats but they were sold out, so we just hiked constantly waving our hands.
After the hike we got back in the bus and drove to watch the sunset over Uluru. Or... so I thought. When we got to the viewing site with our champaign and cheese & crackers we found everyone facing the rock... and the sun setting behind them. This perplexed me. It turns out that the cool part of sunset and sunrise at Uluru is watching the glow off the rock. However, it was cloudy so we didn't see any glow; we did, however, get to watch the rock change from red to purple and drink champaign and eat cheese & crackers after our hot sweaty hike.
That night we spent some quality time with the other people on our adventure. The characters: Laura (the woman from Italy), a French couple (the man spoke no English (his only other language was Arabic)… it had been the wife’s life-long dream to travel in Australia... so it was her birthday present!), a Japanese man from Sydney with his mother and three friends from Japan (none of the ladies spoke any English), one Swedish girl, a whole bunch of Germans, and Laura and I. We spent a good chunk of time folding napkins into fans and paper cranes and bonding cross-culturally and with minimal use of language. It was a pretty cool moment watching a table full of people from all over the world try to find common languages, and folding napkins.
After dinner Laura and I walked up to the bluff and gazed at the stars, Uluru in the distance, and the lightening storm 'far off.' Then we climbed into
swags and lay on our backs looking up at the sky. We woke up at 2:00am to warm, powerful, gusts of wind. Laura: 'it feels like a storm- do you think it's going to rain?' Me: ':: grumble :: 'no we're fine.' Two minutes later it started to rain so we leaped up and dragged our swags, sleeping bags and selves into the tent-like structure at the permanent camp-site, and went back to sleep (after listening to the wind and the rain crashing loudly outside).
day 3: uluru base hike On the third day of our travels we woke up at 5:00am, got dressed and ready to go in the dark, and drove to Uluru to view the sunrise. Once again the sun was rising behind us and Uluru was in front of us. It was drizzling and we didn’t think we would even see sun, much less the glow it was supposed to cast off the rock. However, after standing outside for about 15 minutes past the time the sun rose above the horizon (which lightened the sky but did little else) the sun reached a small space between clouds and for less than a minute we saw the famous glow. The whole rock lit-up red… and then just as suddenly slipped back into darkness. It was definitely worth waiting for. And almost better * because * it was so brief. Here is a picture from that morning (though not from that moment):
After the sunrise we drove to the base of Uluru and did the base walk… in the rain. Having hiked the Valley of the Winds in direct sunlight it was a pleasant change (little did we know how much rain was in our future). And… because of the rain we go to see waterfalls off of Uluru. It is a pretty spectacular sight to be in the middle of a hot red desert and see the silver shine of waterfalls flowing off a huge red rock that rises out of the, otherwise flat, ground. Especially when you know not many people get to see it. In addition… we got to see rainbows. Laura wondered out loud about if we would see any… we turned around… and there was one! Here is a picture of a waterfall off the rock:
On the base hike there are many places you are not allowed to take pictures of because they are sacred sites. Here is a permissible picture taken in another moment that the sun struck:
In case you were curious, here is the blurb from the visitor’s guide about climbing Uluru. (What we did was the base-walk… not the climb). ‘What visitors call the “climb” is the traditional route taken by ancestral Mala men upon their arrival at Uluru. The climb is not prohibited, but it has great spiritual significance for us and we prefer that, as a guest on Anangu land, you will choose to respect our law and culture by not climbing.’ Well of course. Basically the government owns the land, which is why it isn’t prohibited. But who actually climbs?! How disrespectful. On the base walk there is a small cave-like overhang that has old Aboriginal paintings. They are not considered ‘art’ because they are considered to be closer to a form of written record like language. Beautiful. Here’s a picture:
After the walk around the base Buzz drove us around and imparted much knowledge to us. He told us some of the traditional stories about the meaning and significance of Uluru and different formations on it. I moved back to the front for this drive and got the benefit of a better view and even more information. I asked if he knew the cultural significance of the hand image and he said he didn’t and went on to tell me about how the Aboriginal culture in this part of Australia is the strongest of anywhere in the country. This perplexed me since earlier he had said that Aborigines didn’t move to the center of the country until about 30,000 years after they populated the coastal regions. As it turns out, the coastal communities far predate the inland communities but most of the coastal communities were almost entirely destroyed by colonialism. The communities in central Australia were able to maintain their laws and stories and in recent years they have taken more measure to make sure their traditional knowledge is not abused and commercialized. Thus, outside of the community much remains unknown. Some of the Anangu in the area still lives by their traditional laws (Tjukurpa) and male knowledge cannot be passed to women and visa-versa. After the drive filled with stories and knowledge (limited) we stopped at the cultural center.
The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. We drove by Mt. Connor again to take pictures (the one that had been nearly invisible in the blue mist on the first day), gathered fire-wood, had a wonderful Buzz-cooked campfire dinner, chatted with some other foreigners, watched shooting stars, and went to bed early.
Here is one more quick story though. We’re driving along on the way to the campground and most of us are asleep. Buzz comes to a complete halt on the highway, reverses the bus, and parks. He then yells, ‘alright… everyone out!’ We had no idea what was up. So we obliged and found Buzz standing outside holding this critter:
He had seen it from the bus while driving at least 100km/hour. It is a thorny devil. Fact imparted from knowledgeable Buzz: they each have a different pattern on their underbelly. He stopped… reversed to the place where he had seen it, and caught it. Apparently they can’t run— their defense mechanism is ‘look! I blend in!’ So catching it wasn’t the hard part. After lots of piture-taking he had us gather firewood. At least this time when he stopped and told us all to get out we got to see something of interest before being told we told to perform manual labor. Haha. The afternoon before he had stopped almost as abruptly and simply told us to get out and collect wood.
At night Laura and I talked to the German and Swedish couple about studying in their countries. They’re both traveling before beginning Uni (and the Germans family was taking advantage of their travels to meet-up and travel for a bit in Australia… thus all the Germans).
day 4: kings canyon I have lots and lots of pictures from this day because the colors and landscape were absolutely stunning. Here is just one:
We woke up in the dark, once again. And as we were driving to Kings Canyon the sun was rising. The sunrise was absolutely spectacular. Neither nor Laura nor I got any pictures because we both just wanted to appreciate it… and we were putting on sunscreen. So just believe me— it was incredible. When we arrived at Kings Canyon it was 70°F and absolutely stunning weather. It was the best hiking weather I have ever experienced. Ever. It was beautiful sunshine, and breezy. I was never hot, ever once. We saw ‘the Amphitheatre,’ ‘the Garden of Eden’ (and the waterhole in the Garden of Eden), and the ‘Lost City.’ These are all names/explanations for the natural land formations that occur in Kings Canyon. The water hole in the Garden of Eden is spectacular. In the middle of all the red rock there is a permanent water hole. Once again, Buzz stepped forward with his wealth of knowledge about the Australian landscape. The waterhole exists because amidst the carmichael sandstone there is a layer of purple shale. This purple shale is impenetrable— water cannot seep through… so it creates a permanent water source in the Garden of Eden in Kings Canyon. Here is a picture of the water hole… I tried to capture the reflection in the water of the bright red rocks (Sari: I thought of your awesome picture while doing so… this one doesn’t really compare):
Above the Garden of Eden was this structure someone created out of rocks:
I took a picture and about three minutes later Buzz walked over and knocked over the structure. I looked him inquisitively and asked, ‘why?’ Buzz: ‘It’s a national park; it’s not natural. The rangers do the same thing when they come through.’ I found this rather ironic since there are wooden stairs in place. But so it goes.
After hiking out of the Garden of Eden we hiked further and when we stopped at a place that is safe to peer over the edge into the canyon. While people were lying on their stomachs looking over Buzz informed us that this was a filming site for ‘Priscilla Queen of the Desert.’ If you haven’t seen the movie… it is about drag queens in Australia. For those of you have seen it: you know the part where they climb, in full drag (sparkling platforms and all) to the top of the canyon because he has always dreamed of doing so? I was there! Here’s a picture:
(I’m not 100% sure that I took this picture in that exact spot… but it was close). For the record, they didn’t actually hike it in drag… they were airlifted in. * However * apparently there was a bus full of couples from Melbourne awhile back who * did * do the whole hike in drag. Good times.
That was pretty much the end of the first half of our adventure. We had lunch and a quick swim and then drove five and a half hours back to Alice Springs (and were mooned by another tour bus on the way). [I can’t imagine driving for three days straight in one of those buses]. We spent the evening hanging out at the Melanka Party Bar at our hostel. The whole place was filled with people there for tours. We watched Australians do an Australian song with motions, we tried to flip pitchers to land right to win beer (we failed), Laura (from Italy) ordered us a round of cock-sucking cowboy, which is the best shot I have ever had (2 parts Butterscotch Schnapps and one part Baileys), we exchanged info (and if I ever want a place to stay in Venice I’ve got one!) and we all went to bed relatively early.
day 5: alice springs to cairns Before leaving for the airport in the morning Laura and I walked across town (only about 20 minutes) and hiked up to the top of Anzac Hill. From the top you can see all of Alice Springs. It was a good last view. As we were walking back to the hostel we passed by lots of Aboriginal peoples chilling outside. When we arrived on Saturday I assumed that so many people were out and about because it was Saturday… time off to spend outdoors. Or at least, I hoped this was the case. But it was clear that mid-day on Wednesday these people were outside wandering about because they live in utter impoverished conditions and do not have jobs. (All of the art galleries with Aboriginal art are owned by whites). As we were walking back from Anzac Hill Laura remarked, ‘what an oppressive colonial presence.’ I didn’t realize until about five minutes later that she meant Anzac Hill rather than the town at large. But it pretty much summed up the situation.
We arrived in Cairns to humidity and torrential downpour. When we arrived and checked in at our hostel, Calypso, we were informed that, due to the weather, our white-water rafting trip for the next day had been cancelled. However, we had three days worth of scheduled plans and five days in Cairns so we were able to get them to rearrange our schedule for no extra charge with no hassle at all. We then asked what our options were for the next day. The verdict was: not much. We scheduled a tour of the Tablelands, which was one of the only things still happening despite the weather. And then, content, we went for a swim in the pool in the rain with our Canadian dorm mate John, had dinner ($8 for all you can eat at Calypso every night… good times), played trivia at the Zanzibar bar and grill and headed to bed.
day 6: rained in We woke up at 7:00am ready to go and found that our tour had been cancelled. Everything was cancelled. Literally everything. Because… those things that were running despite the weather were inaccessible because every road in and out of Cairns was either flooded or mudslidded. So we resigned ourselves to the fate of a day in Cairns. We didn’t do a whole lot. We walked along the Esplanade and watched the birds (and laughed at the signs saying Crocodiles had been spotted nearby and warning passersby to stay out of the water). We found ‘Muddy’s Playground.’ Muddy’s Playground consists of at least five playground structures along the esplanade. It is chock full of bright colors and possibly one of the most cheerful looking playgrounds I ever seen, even in the rain. We played on the zip line for a while… here’s a picture of that:
Then we continued walking down the esplanade and stumbled upon ‘The Lagoon.’ The Lagoon is a large pool out in the open. It isn’t quite in the middle of town… it is by the water, but it’s open and runs right into the sidewalk and I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
In the afternoon we walked back into town and watched a movie. Seriously, there was nothing to do. (We saw ‘Eight Below.’) And then at night we walked * back * into town and spent the evening at Johno’s Blues Bar listening to a reggae band and chatting with our dorm mates John and Ryan.
day 7: fitzroy island There were lots of activities possible from Fitzroy Island but the weather was still pretty crummy so we opted for hiking/bushwalking rather than beach time. We hiked to the summit and the lighthouse (4.5km). It was slightly drizzly but it didn’t rain down hard at all the whole time. The weather was quite nice for hiking— warm but not too hot, pleasant breezes and occasionally sprinkles. The view from the summit was spectacular despite being somewhat obstructed by the ominous clouds:
Then we had lunch. And then after lunch we walked to the secret garden and ‘Nudey Beach.’ I took a nap at Nudey Beach while Laura frolicked. The beaches on Fitzroy Island are choral beaches— all of the sand is crushed choral— it’s beautiful.
Perhaps the best part of the adventure on Fitzroy Island was the dinosaur hunting. Early on in our hike to the summit we saw a gigantic skink. Ahem, ‘at least the size of my arm!’ I said it was a dinosaur. So for the remainder of the day, we were dinosaur hunting. Laura kept asking about the specifics of what qualified as a dinosaur and what didn’t, according to my fine-tuned definition. Quite entertaining. We saw at least three dinosaurs on Fitzroy Island.
day 8: great barrier reef I have been snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Good stuff. We took a boat (‘Reef Magic’) out to a barge an hour and a half offshore. They called it ‘Marine World.’ Laura called it a party barge. One of the boat guys told us that he has dived all along the Great Barrier Reef- both commercial locations and non-commercial locations and that where this barge is undoubtedly one of the very best places he’s been. He could have been talking it up but he told us on the way back so there really wouldn’t be much reason for that. But then, you never know. The absolute best part of our trip out to the reef was, hands down, the thing 1 and thing 2 outfits. When we disembarked from Reef Magic and climbed onto the barge we were confronted with a man dressed in a red, full body, nylon outfit. Like the pink man in Berkeley. Or the blue man group. But red. It was cold and we were promptly jealous of his thin wet-suit looking outfit. And then… to our utter delight… we were informed that for $6 we could rent one of these for the day! They are stinger suits. It is the end of jellyfish season here so they weren’t * really * necessary. But as far as we were concerned they were * totally * necessary— and not because we were afraid of being stung. Because just * look * how sexy they are:
Please note the ‘s’ in the second picture— it stands for super-woman. They were somewhere between thing 1 and thing 2 costumes and super-hero outfits.
We went snorkeling and went on a glass-bottom boat/semi-sub tour. We saw at least two turtles… perhaps three (we might have seen the same one twice but we saw two at the same time so… at least two). We saw * giant * clams (like two feet across). And we saw tons of amazing fish. Many of them are the same fish you see snorkeling in Hawaii actually. The visibility wasn’t the best, and the colors would have been brighter if the sun had been shining, but we had a wonderful time anyway. I almost choked from laughing when Laura pointed to a massive fish and finger spelled ‘di-no-saur!’ Its name is Wollie (no Laura- not Harold (that was the cause for some more laughter)). The thing 1 and thing 2 costumes were the best part though, hands down. I seriously considered stealing one and kind of regret the decision not to. We took some underwater pictures, which I will post when we get them developed. On the boat on the way back everyone was passed out asleep except for Laura and I who had our headphones on and were dancing in the wind in the rain to our separate tunes without a care in the world. Wind + water + music + good company = extremely happy Becca.
Here is a picture of Laura and I on the boat on the way back:
[Still thing 1 and thing 2, despite the lack of appropriate attire. You can’t see her headphones but I can assure you that we were each dancing to the beat of our own drums, as it were.]
day 9: white water rafting On the second to last day of our adventure we finally got to go on our white water rafting excursion. We had been waking up with plenty of time to spare in the morning (we’d been waking up at outrageously early hours, but consistently… so it worked out) but this morning when I looked at my alarm clock it was 6:15… so we had 15 minutes to get our act together and get outside to get picked up. It was… pushing it pretty close to adventure-o’clock— a term coined by Laura earlier on in the break. We managed all right though… and headed off to the Tully River. Because of the excessive amounts of rain the river was full full full and flowing fast. If you’ve ever been white water rafting you know that this makes for the best rapids. It rained on and off but it honestly didn’t make any difference. Having spent all day the day before in thing 1 & thing 2 outfits but slightly chilly we decided to splurge and pay another $6 to rent wet suit tops. So we were wet anyway and toasty warm- the rain just meant we weren’t getting sunburned. We were in the boat with the one woman guide… and she was the shit, if you will. She was at least as small as me and totally knew the river and had complete control over it. (Though admittedly we did get stuck pretty good once). We discussed their crazy training and how they have to swim the rapids that suck you under and such. (Do you guys know that last summer Crystal and I looked into being rafting guides in northern Cali?. I could totally do it.) She even let me guide for a mini rapid. I’m all about volunteering for extra adventures, information, and time with those who know what’s up… move to the front of the bus, move to the back of the raft, whatever!) She was hot… and Australian… and fully capable of everything ‘the boys’ (as she fondly referred to them) were, but without the necessity to be constantly immature. She rocked.
At night I hung out with Sandra, a Scottish woman at Calypso (and thought of you, once again, Sonja J). I sat down to eat and we started chatting about the skydiving footage on the giant screen in the bar and then from there about everything else imaginable. Several ours later her and I and Laura and Ryan went out for drinks. Good times. What a cutie.
day 10: biggest day out (bungee jumping!) When we arrived in Cairns and found that our white-water rafting trip was not running on Thursday we began looking for alternate plans. And, in the process, we began considering our options for Monday, our last day. The vast majority of day trips and tours were not going to arrive back in time for us to get to the airport for our flight— our options were limited. Bungee jumping, however, was a possibility. New Zealand is knows as ‘the adventure capital of the world.’ I have realized though, that, despite being so close by, I am not going to make it to New Zealand before heading home. So there was no reason to save crazy activities like bungee jumping. There was no better time than now! (Ahem: no day but today.) Once I had been presented with this option I couldn’t stop thinking about it— it had to be done. Turns out this is the only bungee site in Australia (with the exception of one super mini one… lame). There was one guy there who was about 60 who flew down from Sydney in the morning, got picked up by the van, bungee jumped for the day, and flew back to his wife and kids that evening. Crazy talk. It costs $125 to jump once… and $174 to jump an unlimited number of times, do the minjin swing, and get lunch. So what the hell?! That was obviously the way to do it. I signed up for the AJ Hackett’s ‘Biggest Day Out.’ So… I spent the day bungee jumping. Yep. Seven times: swan dive, back dive, pendulum (they hold onto you, lean you back, keep you suspended in the air, and then drop you), backward elevator (advertised as ‘have you ever wondered what it would feel like if you were in an elevator and someone cut the chords….?’), another swan dive (they wanted a demonstration for the spectators below… advertising; I obliged- going forwards after two backwards was pretty cool), forward elevator, and a handstand. I have a hilarious certificate that says it is awarded to Rebecca ‘who we hereby certify has overcome all fear and instinct by laughing in the face of gravity and throwing themselves off an enormous structure 50 metres above the ground with only a glorified rubber-band tied around their legs. For this we commend their bravery. They completed this act of sheer insanity at the AJ Hackett bungy site in Cairns, North Queensland, Australia.’ It was good times. Scary each time I stood on the edge of the platform, but not scary enough to deter me! (I’m nuts— what can I say?). But honestly… what does one do for thrills after that? We shall see. No picture here but I have a DVD with every jump (and commentary) which I shall show those who want to see when I return! (I’ve gotta save * something * for later, right?)
