Rocky, Salt and the Reds

And so Lindie and I ventured into the depths of the "Red Centre" and have emerged stunned and dusty after just over 2 weeks and over 3,000kms (1,000 on rough roads/tracks).
Stunned because it is an awesome place in terms of size, heat, colours, rocks and mountains and gorges and the people who founded and now live out here (Aborogine and white).
Deserts stretch for hundreds of miles but change colours with both the light and the different hues of the rocks from almost black to pure beach sand and salt white via brilliant reds. The sky and horizons just go on forever, broken by ranges of hills and mountains themselves split and broken by the heat, wind and freezing nights plus flash floods.
First stop was Coober Pedy, the famous underground town just existing because there is human perceived value in sparkly stones called opals - crazy, but unique and incredible. People digging around in up to 50C and living in old mine dugouts to try to keep cool, imagine the original miners, hard bastards.
Then to Alice Springs, a bit of a nonentity really being a railway, telegraph and road junction but not interesting in itself (except for an excellent western American style saloon bar called Bojangles!).
And so to the mountains and rocks and gorges:

• the MacDonnell range full of narrow gorges where flash flood creeks have eventually split through the walls of the range;
• Gosse Bluff, a little advertised crater in the middle of a flat plain caused by a huge comet 140 milliion years ago, which in turn threw up crater sides the height of the Alps and caused, they say, a global weather change;
• King's Canyon where erosion has formed incredible rock formations from what was originally layers of compressed sand dunes, this was part of the coastline of the great "inland sea";
• Uluru (and its sister hills, Kata Tjuta) - what can I say, the largest single rock in the world and still 2/3 below the desert floor yet to be exposed. It is awesome and does exude an atmosphere as it changes colours during the day and exposes clefts, dry waterfalls and holes all over its sides, plus the sacred Aboriginal sites upon and beneath it. Idiots have put graffiti on it, scrawled over the ancient paintings, and scramble to its top (from where, of course, you can't see it and there is nothing to look at except flat desert) but it is too majestic for that;
• Flinders ranges where massive tectonic and earth crust movements have caused an incredible array of different rocks to be exposed in a very small area covered in faults, folds and gorges;
• And between them all, huge salt lakes - the remains of the inland sea, one of which, Lake Eyre, I was incredibly lucky to see start to fill with freshwater all the way from Queensland for only the 3rd time in 25 years. Others never fill, and one of which cotains the last complete skeletons of the mega-animals as it was the last to lose its fresh water and the animals mummified in the mud of its shores.

And through it all the Aborigine tribes who not only survived but thrived here for 40,000 years. Then the explorers, the engineers and the farmers who followed all within the last 200 years. The largest cattle ranch in the world is here, Anna Creek, half the size of England and with only 1,700 head of cattle on it because of the ongoing drought here. There are the remains of boom towns from mining, farming and railway / telegraph stations (wherever there are water springs) - William Creek, population of 2 officially, a pub and a house and now an airstrip for the cattle stations.

So, lots of great 4wd trips, detours, hikes and scenic flights to take it all in. Just amazing.

And finally:

• Flies: everywhere, in your face, on your back, even causing problems if nature calls while traveling. Any moisture from any source, even your breath through a flyscreen - a welcoming committee on waking up in the mornings. Thought: if zips had been invented earlier would we be zapping zips instead of flies?
• Spiders: some monsters. One in particular, a sandy coloured, saucer-sized thing. I put the light on in the back of the van one night, turned round and came eye to eyes with this thing which was sitting on the ceiling of the van. Do spiders have a concept of upside down? Anyway, I sidled round and opened the rear doors, got some kitchen roll and prepared my best tennis overhead smash. Never been much good at tennis, it landed on my bunk. Now at this point it ran towards me!! I think I had upset it, but I prepared my best cricket off-drive, got it on the half volley, over the (bed)covers and through the boundary doors for six (or is it eight if its a spider, I can never remember?). A swift snort of medicine was required, and I have never left my shoes outside since, although it actually must have got in with my food shopping.
• Road kill: they don't mess about here with wallabies, etc, they go for the mega point animals: cattle, camels and red kangaroos!
• One geological event theory is now that there was a pre-Gondwana global ice age, but that there was then some catastrophic climactic change "overnight" (no time gap in geo-terms), and Aus went to being a tropical ranforest with 20% carbon dioxide! And we humans think we have a problem with 0.4% and rising. Just shows how small and insignificant we are, these things have been happening forever, its only because we might actually be here to experience one that it is "a disaster".

I found it impossible to edit photos down, so I have created a highlights folder and the main one (200+ photos) at http://picasaweb.google.com/laurentmik/Aus_Outback_Highlights_2009 and http://picasaweb.google.com/laurentmik/Aus_Outback_2009 respectively.

Cheers! Mike

Coasts, Koalas and Culture

So, I picked up Lindie, my van and home for the next 4 months in Melbourne after a short flight from Tassie and headed south west onto the famous Great Ocean Road for a sunny, spectacular, smooth sortie to kick off this epic.
Now this where things started to go wrong:

• got as far as Torquay (surfie paradise, man) and was told not to continue as the road and the Nat Parks had been closed because of bushfire threats in the extreme heat and high winds. Can't argue with that so hung around Torquay for a couple of days, at which point:
• it started to rain and blow a cold wind straight of the sea from the Antarctic, so my scenic cruise was 3 days of battling squalls, storms and cliff edges to see this famed beauty. Even the bloody koalas looked as miserable as sin (but still cuddly, aaaah! - see photos), rocks and seas were pretty impressive though
• all of this whilst trying to keep the inside of the van dry for sleeping in. No chance of cooking anything as the cooker setup assumes sunny, dry weather outdoors from the van! It was just like trying to go camping in UK, and I remembered why I don't

End of this coast road, and the sun came out, typical. Some heavy showers still but sun. Followed the road up into South Australia, nothing spectacular except some volcanic craters and limestone cave systems at Mt Gambier and Naracoorte. Rejoined the coast on the way north toward Adelaide.

Didn't realise it was Labour Day weekend, well nobody told me!

• So stopped at a place called Port Fairy, pretty little place and found a Folk Festival starting that night (Friday) - now folkie types look the same at both ends of the world I can confirm. Had to park up in a car park.
• Saturday on to Goolwa at start of Fleurieu Peninsular, pretty little place and found a Wooden Boat Festival going on - now boatie types are the same at both ends of the world I can confirm but they like better music, blues bands! A bloke called Mojo Webb who I had seen before in Pau, nothern Thailand! And there is a micro brewery in an old rail shed on the quay, good beers too, so a good night was had. Had to park up in a car park.
• Sunday, a tour of the beautiful peninsular and on to the Adelaide Hills behind the city. Very pretty place, posh suburbia - now posh suburban types are the same at both ends of the world, etc, etc.
• Every bloody city dweller had his caravan out for the weekend, if only to go 20 miles into the hills - now caravan owners, etc, etc. Had to park up in a car park.
• Monday, and I'll have the whole of Monday with Adelaide city all to myself! Except for Fringe Festival, WOMAD festival and the Adelaide Cup horse race meeting - now festival goers and racegoers, etc, etc. Monday night and the had all buggered off home, so I got into a camp site and had a shower whether I needed one or not. Luxury!

Adelaide is very compact but beautifully laid out, completely surrounded by parks, gardens and the river, so the suburbs are physically separated. Keeps the unwashed from the city bankers too, I suppose (sorry Pete).

A couple of thoughts:

• Intiative prizewinner: lighthouse keeper who scratched a small hole in the blacked out landward side of the light in exactly the right place so he could see the beam of light from the local pub and know it was still working! My kind of man.
• Why does nobody tell you that the clocks change between states? And why do they have a quarantine on fruit, plants, etc to stop spread of insects when they can fly? I was hoping to see policemen with big butterfly nets, no one there at all, so even a fly with no passport could get across!
• Oh yes, and why the van is called Lindie: it doesnt say much but grumbles throatily on all day (through a large exhaust), except when its time for her to say "I need money, feed me, or I need a bloody drink". Now girls, I had a choice of names I could have selected under those criteria, so don't feel you're any better, just escaped this time, which is something I doubt I shall when I get back.

Enough! Am now in Northern Territory in Alice Springs but that's another story - its bloody hot and the bloody flies have reached here too, so quarantine can't be working.

Photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/laurentmik/Aus_Victoria_to_Adelaide_2009

Cheers! Mike

On the edge of the world...

So, in Aus for 1 month already and covered an area about the size of a postage stamp on the map!

Melbourne for a couple of weeks with Pete, Julie, Nico and Alex (many thanks, guys, for putting me up and up with me). A great place to live it seems, the city has just about every sport, concert, show going plus all in a beautiful bay with the beach at the end of the road, can't be bad. A good atmosphere about the place too, a relaxed major city well into socialising, music, coffee (BIG time into coffee, Pete's local shopping street had about 5 coffee shops within 100 yards!) and the outdoors, with wide streets, trams and open spaces.

The suburbs are just like suburbs the world over, non-descript or being re-born by the trendies if they are unlucky. In the leafy outer-suburbs, weekdays means seeing ladies doing coffee mornings, speed-walking the dogs or the babies or both plus health / fitness shops ("spas") everywhere - odd when the rest of the shops are fish and chippies, or restaurants of some nationality or other; weekends means brunch in a cafe by the beach or lunch / people watching after a beach walk or cycling, scuba diving, snorkeling or sailing too! Can't be bad.

Managed to find a pub which specialised only in local beers too! Micro breweries are a big thing here, and producing things like Pale Ale and Dark Ales not just fizzy pop lager!! Hoorah. And with a new quote for me to add to my Facebook profile: "When I read that drinking was bad for you, I gave up reading" (Henry Youngman).
But generally the "hotels" or "taverns" are barns of places at rail stations or major road junctions which are also the local bookie, off-license, bingo hall (Keno here) and gaming arcade all rolled into one! With decor to match a seventies British Legion club. But prices are high (about same as at home).

Bad news about the bushfires raging around Victoria state though - still going 3 weeks on, millions of acres of forest gone not to mention, towns and the death toll. Victoria has about half the water reserves it had 5 years ago because of ongoing drought. Floods in Queensland and NSW at the same time, crazy. Weather went from 45C with gale force winds off the desert to 20C in 2 days! It was like standing inside an electric fan oven.

Then a flight to Tassie, as it is known locally. A 1 hour flight cheaper than a 10 hour ferry ride over the renowned stormy Bass Strait, sounds good to me even if you like sailing.
Picked up a campervan - a bloody monster! It turns out the Tassie is full of Aussies in campervans, so I got the last one on the island - a VW Crafter complete with shower, toilet and TV!! Far too high spec and too big for me (and no 4WD so no going offroad either), but a doddle to drive even on the small windy roads over here.
Tassie reminded me exactly of NZ - rural, forests, mountains, rivers and rough coastlines with small towns and cities, all with a mix 0f Victorian stone / brick public buildings with clapboard houses and churches and modern Neighbours bungalow estates. The people are really friendly and the National Parks are beautiful. Did some day hiking in the forests and mountains when the weather permitted, but got rained out of the west coast. 2 weeks in Tas was not enough, it is the size of Ireland despite looking so small on the atlas, but the weather is very changeable (and cold in the van at night, down to 5C in the mountains!).

Just a couple of other things:

• School uniforms. Amazing. Throwbacks to the fifties with pinafore dresses or pleated skirts, closed toe sandals and woolly socks (yes, for the girls) and shorts, long woolly socks and black tie-up shoes for the boys (many of whom are bigger than me). And all with colourful school blazers and ties, all it needed were caps!
• Diet: if its local its fried - everything (even fresh scallops and prawns!), if its not BBQ'd meat, and all with chips. If not then its pizza, pasta or asian. Coffee is taken with cakes, doughnuts and muffins. And chocolate shops everywhere too! Sounds like heaven for some of my readers I know, but....I noticed that Julie balances everything out with salads and fruits at home.
• Road kill: bizarre to a foreigner. Masses of it, and all of it in weird shapes. Wallabies, echidna (a giant, punk hedgehog), Tas devils, wombats, possums. Cats, dogs??? No chance. Drivers only go for the odd shaped ones here, maybe there's a points system?

Anyway, all done.

Photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/laurentmik/Melbourne_and_Tasmania_2009

Cheers!

Mike