Part 3: Outback-Great Ocean Road-Home

Alice Springs

My flight to Alice Springs was great. It cost an arm and a leg but it was just a 2.5 hour flight and I was served a drink and a snack immediately and then I got a complimentary lunch and then I got coffee or tea. I have become involved in a very serious love affair with Qantas Airlines! On my flight from Sydney to Byron with Jetstar I got nothing. The sights were really cool out my window too. We went from rainforest to bush to dry cracked desert all in about 30 minutes. I got teary-eyed on the way thinking of all my Aussie friends I may never see again. It dawned on me that I would be leaving Australia in exactly 2 weeks and the end of my journey became very real. As we flew over Alice Springs I saw this bizarre mountain range in the middle of this totally flat desert. I was incredibly confused as to how this range formed because Australia is entirely on one plate. However, I learned later that all of the plates surrounding Australia have all been pushing in on Aus. causing the center of it to buckle under the pressure, creating these mountains and Uluru (Ayers Rock) and the like. I arrived in Alice Springs in the early afternoon and saw heaps of Aboriginals walking about by the road appearing to be looking for something and thought it to be very strange. I still do not know the purpose or reasoning behind this behaviour but I learned that it is part of their culture and they were not actually looking for anything. After I arrived at my hostel I went for an explore around town and found an abundance of Aboriginal art galleries and souvenir shops. As I was walking an Aboriginal guy named David called me over to the bench where he was sitting and asked me in broken English if I had a camera to take his photo. Then he told me about his starving family and said he needed ten dollars. I gave him two. He was a sweet guy, victim of horrendous racism and poverty like so many of his kin. Just before sunset I walked to the edge of town in hopes of getting a good photo of the area and stumbled upon Anzac Hill where apparently one gets the best view of the sunset. It was packed with tourists. After the sunset I went to the cinema alone for the very first time in my life to watch Shrek the Third. It was great fun!
Flying over the outback, David, Lookout over Alice

Uluru/Kings Canyon

The next morning I left Alice Springs at 5 AM on a tour that would take me south to Adelaide. Our first stop was Kings Canyon: a huge, beautiful canyon oddly formed in the middle of flat desert.

After a nice hike we drove off to Uluru for the sunset but didn’t make it quite in time. So we continued on our way to Yalara: a resort town about 15mins from Uluru where we would camp for the next two nights. In true desert style, it was freezing as soon as the sun went down but I was presented the opportunity to sleep in a swag (essentially a canvas sack with a mat attached) under the stars and couldn’t pass up the chance. We had to tuck our shoes under the swag while we slept so that the dingoes couldn’t steal them. I was cold and uncomfortable all night but am happy that I can say I did it. In the morning we went to Uluru for sunrise. It was dreadfully cold (probably around zero; I’ve become acclimatized to the Aussie heat). But the view was breathtaking. The whole rock turned a brilliant orange as the sun came up and hit it. After the sunset, we were able to either climb up Uluru or walk around it. I chose to walk around it because climbing it is very hurtful and offensive to the Aboriginal people who hold the rock as a very sacred place. The walk around took about three hours and was 9.4km. I was fascinated with the geography of the place. As I mentioned before Uluru formed when the plates were pushing on Australia. One side of the rock was pushed up and the other side went down so that Uluru is now on its side. It is 350 metres above ground and extends 6km underground making it the largest monolith on Earth! Because the rock is on its side, one side of what you can see is 150 million years older than the other side and you can see the lines in the sedimentary sandstone going vertical rather than horizontal. It is really cool! As you walk around there are a few places where there is Aboriginal rock art and one part of Uluru looks like the head of a whale or something with its mouth open and the Aboriginals had left an offering there for it.

Sunrise, masive rock, offering, mouth.

After lunch we went to Kata Tjuta (another rock formation near Uluru) and went on another big hike of 7.2km. With very tired legs we went back to Uluru to watch the sunset and have champagne and crackers. The sunset wasn’t as cool as the sunrise but we had lots of fun. That night we spent some time around the campfire getting to know each other with rounds of questions like: “where is your favourite place in the world?” I slept in the tent with my swag that night to try and stay warm and I was far more comfortable but very unhappy about having to get up at 5 am to drive to Coober Pedy. On the way we saw the fourth largest eagles in the world with about a three metre wingspan, drove through the largest cattle station in the world and drove along the dingo fence which is the longest man-made structure in the world extending from Surfers Paradise all the way to the south-west corner of the country. It is meant to keep all the dingoes in the north where the cattle are and all of the vulnerable sheep safe in the south.

Kata Tjuta, Uluru sunset, leaving the Northern Territory

Coober Pedy

The landscape around Coober Pedy resembles Mars and has been the sight where films like Pricilla Queen of the Desert and Return to Mars have been filmed. People in Coober Pedy live underground because it gets near 60 degrees in the summer. It is an opal mining town so they use the same machines that dig the mines to dig the houses. It is a very strange place. When we got into town we toured an opal mine and a dugout house and then I went off in search of cheap opal necklaces to bring home. I found some at a little underground shop owned by a miner. It was a neat little place. When I asked the owner what time he opens in the morning he responded with “Whenever I feel like it. I usually like to plant some explosives in the mine before I come in.” I had a chuckle at the authenticity of this place. That night we stayed in an underground hostel and I had a room all to myself. It was wonderful.
Desert, dugout house, mine shaft, underground hostel, tour group.

Lake Hart/Flinders Ranges

The next day we drove to Lake Hart (a dried up salt lake) to have a look around and play some Frisbee and toss around a footy ball. Next we had to stop in at Port Augusta for groceries before heading into the Flinders Ranges (the second oldest mountain range in Australia). We stayed in cabins near Wilpena Pound at a sheep station and in the morning climbed Mount Olssen-Bagge. The view from the summit was amazing. The next stop on out journey was a tiny town where we ate some delicious scones and then continued on to our accommodation near Parachilna just outside/past Flinders Ranges. We drove into town (literally population 5) where they somehow have a multi-million dollar pub and watched the sunset over the desert. There was another tour group there who came back to our hostel to stay and we ate a feast of kangaroo steaks, camel sausages and emu burgers. They were all quite surprisingly delicious!
Lake Hart, Mt. Olssen-Bagge, tour group in Parachilna, rock art.

Adelaide

The next day we drove into Adelaide; the last day of this tour. On the way we stopped at some of the best preserved Aboriginal cave paintings in Australia and stopped at the Seven Hills Winery in the Clare Valley. The wine was pretty good but I still haven’t developed much of a taste for wine of any kind. We got into Adelaide at about 6:30 and everyone met up for supper and a goodbye party (only seven of us were continuing on to Melbourne). The next day was free time in Adelaide and I went down to the central markets. It had the coolest atmosphere with produce guys hollering their prices and butchers with freshly slaughtered lamb hanging next to them and people everywhere. I bought some strawberries just for the sake of buying something there. I spent the afternoon and early evening being lazy and chatting with people from the tour and then a big group of us went to see Harry Potter at the cinema. It was a jolly good time!
Central Markets, the Swedes had jackets stolen at goodbye party so bought matching souvenir jumpers.

Grampians/Great Ocean Road

Throughout my whole trip I had amazingly survived without an alarm clock and did not miss a single bus or tour or anything. My internal clock was working at its best. As you will remember, ever since my last final exam the alarm on my watch has been broken. However, at this point in my journey my internal clock would fail me for the first time. The tour to Melbourne was leaving at 6:20AM and I woke up to a knock on my door at 6:15. Marie from the Alice Springs tour had come to my rescue. She stripped my bed while I threw all my stuff in my bag and we were downstairs ready to go in no time and got to our pick-up with time to spare. It was a miracle. Thank God for friends. The first stop on tour was the Grampians National Park where we climbed Hollow Mountain. The view was wonderful. Then we walked down to the base of Mackenzie Falls which were huge and the first time I saw a waterfall in Australia that actually had a lot of water as it had been raining in the area all week. (It appears the drought is ending). We stayed in the most beautiful hostel that night that was like a log cabin with a wood fireplace and everything but, there was a group of incredibly annoying and loud American school kids there too who drove me nuts.

The next day we went on a gruelling 2 hour hike up to the top of the Pinnacle. The view at the top was breathtaking. It had been cloudy all morning but when we got to the top the clouds broke and the sun lit up the green valley below us.

We spent the afternoon driving the Great Ocean Road. First we stopped at the Bay of Islands. All of the rock formations on that coast are formed by the waves crashing and wearing tunnels into the cliffs and then the roof of the tunnel collapses and you are left with a free standing rock thing. Next we saw London Bridge which has an interesting story with it. It used to have a land bridge where the gap is, connecting it to the mainland. Several years ago, there was a couple who walked out onto the bridge and about five minutes after they crossed, the bridge behind them collapsed. They were stuck out on the remaining section until the media and the air ambulance came to their rescue. Afterward they declined to be interviewed and quickly left. Later, a woman was watching the news and saw a close-up of the couple on the bridge. It was her husband and his secretary who were supposed to be out of town on a business trip. Busted. Next we drove to Loch Ard Gorge where a ship had crashed a couple hundred years ago named the Loch Ard. Only two people survived: Tom and Eva. Tom swam into the gorge to safety and heard Eva screaming and swam out to save her. Then he put her in what is now called Tom’s Cave and went for help. Tom made a life for himself in Australia but Eva, who had come over from England with her whole family on the ship, had no one left and hopped on the next ship back to England.

Bay of Islands, London Bridge, far side of 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge.

Next I took a helicopter tour over the 12 Apostles. There are only eight left standing of the original 19. The name the 12 Apostles was an advertising ploy. They used to be called the Sow and Piglets which for some reason didn’t attract very many tourists. The helicopter tour was amazing. The only place where you can see all eight Apostles at once is from the air. It was so beautiful and heaps of fun. After the tour I went down to the platforms to watch the sunset over the famous side of the Apostles. It was pretty cloudy so the sunset wasn’t very spectacular and it was freezing cold so wee didn’t stay there long. That night we stayed at a nice hostel called the 13th Apostle in a tiny town called Princetown.

The next morning I woke up to rain for the first time since Byron Bay three weeks ago. I can’t believe how lucky I had been with the weather. That morning we went for a walk in the temperate rainforest on the Otway Fly Treetop Walk. It is a big raised walkway the highest point at 47 metres. After drying out a bit in the café, we drove down the rest of the Great Ocean Road stopping to see some wild koalas (the first and only I saw in Aus). The waves along the road were huge and our guide said he had never seen the water so high. It was so high that when we stopped to see the koalas, the shop owner told our guide that he was sure there was going to be a tsunami. Then we drove to Bells Beach to watch some crazy surfers in the freezing waters under a miserably windy and rainy sky. Bells Beach is home to the longest running surf competition in the world (since 1969) and is located just outside of the small town Torquay (or Surf City) where the Ripcurl international headquarters is located alongside the rest of Australia’s surf industry. We did some shopping and then went on to Melbourne.
Otway Fly, Great Ocean Road, Bells Beach.

Melbourne

After spending the last four weeks in the wilderness, towns and little cities, the metropolis of Melbourne was really overwhelming. I decided to stay in the suburb of St. Kilda which is said to be the Kings Cross of Melbourne but never saw any similarity besides the fact that as a straight person I was a minority. I chose to stay in St. Kilda because Pete (an English guy who I had been travelling with since Alice Springs) was staying there and I was sick of staying in hostels alone. On my first day in Melbourne I immediately got lost on the tram trying to get downtown to do some shopping. I didn’t get to the city until about 11:30 and got off the tram in front of the Arts Centre which was a couple stops too early so I went to the National Gallery of Victoria to see the Guggenheim Exhibition. It was a journey through the history of the Guggenheim by the works that have been there. I was in love. After that I met up with my friends from the tour one last time for lunch at a cool little pub and I spent the afternoon shopping. I found a hostel near Southern Cross Station for my third night in Melbourne for on the fourth day I had to catch an overnight train to Sydney and needed somewhere close by to keep my luggage… and I wasn’t very enchanted with St. Kilda mostly because it was too far from the city. After booking the hostel I went back to the Arts Centre and got a ticket to see the musical Sweet Charity. I bought the ticket at 6:30pm and the show started at 7:30. In a panic I hopped on the tram back to St. Kilda to change into something respectable. I arrived back at the Centre at 7:28. The show was great (featuring the song “Hey Big Spender”). But even after my impromptu clean-up, I was still really out of place in my poor backpacker’s clothes. The next day, I collected all my belongings and caught the train to my other hostel. I spent the afternoon at the Queen Victoria Market where one can buy all sorts of cheep stuff… and I did. Then I went to the Old Melbourne Gaol where the famous Australian outlaw Ned Kelly was imprisoned and hanged. It was a very creepy place. Next I browsed through the very posh GPO Building and felt like I was going to be tossed out at any moment because I was clearly too poor and dirty to be there. I now know how Julia Roberts felt in Pretty Woman trying to shop on Rodeo Drive. I bought a book on my way back to the hostel and went back to a fabulous little coffee shop I had discovered my first day in Melbourne where I chilled until they closed. The next day I walked to the Melbourne Museum and saw the really cool Great Wall of China Exhibition but I had to rush through it because I had three other museums to see that day. Next on the agenda was the Ian Potter Building (part of the National Gallery of Victoria) and then back to the Arts Centre to see the rest of the NGV. I got very confused because while in the building I somehow got from the first floor to the second floor without having any memory of going up at any point. After wandering around confused for awhile I discovered that I had gone up a really long, barely inclining ramp that had an exhibit in the middle and never noticed. I felt pretty dumb. Next I went to the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art which was REALLY weird and really small so I was done just after 4 pm and was wishing I had spent more time at the Melbourne Museum. So I ate some supper and wasted some time at my fav little café before I boarded my train to Sydney at 7:30 pm.

Sydney and Home

I arrived in Sydney at 7 am and treated myself to a big brekky (that’s Aussie for breakfast). Then I walked around by the Opera House and through The Rocks and said a very sad goodbye to Sydney.

I hopped on a train to Westmead where I was to meet Joann to spend the night and pick up my luggage that she was storing for me over the last month. I got to Westmead before I had been able to contact Joann and soon discovered that she and her husband were at work all day. So I sat myself at a bus stop across from Westmead Hospital and read the afternoon away. I have discovered in my travels that sitting at a random bus stop is the best way to meet the craziest people. First, a little old lady came by who had just come from visiting her lifelong friend who had been hit by a car. She had lived in Parramatta her whole life and thought I was just so brave to be travelling by myself and coming all that way on one of those crazy aeroplanes. She was a riot! Next the air ambulance came and landed right across the street from me and as it was taking off a lady came over and watched it with me. As soon as it was gone she launched into a speech about fossil fuels and how wasteful man is and that the Earth is becoming too light because we keep burning all the fuels and pretty soon the Earth is going to fly out into the universe because it will be too light. And when God put man on Earth he had one job and that was to grow from man into humanity but man is too greedy and focused on getting that quick fix and the need to have have have. And we keep killing all the big animals on Earth that are there to pack the earth down and keep everything together and the whales are in the ocean to stop the waves from continuously crashing into shore because the drag from their bodies pulls the water back. And people need to realize that when we go home to Brother Jesus we don’t take what is in our hands but only what is in our hearts. And so we have to share our experiences and our knowledge with others so that it can be passed on and we can make the world a better place. And may I have a nice day and may my future be bright. And just like that she was gone. I was speechless and dumbfounded as I watched her walk away down the street. What an incredible last day in Australia! As 7pm started to role around I started to get a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to get a hold of Joann that night. So I went and ate some nasty fast-food for supper and called Joann again. She answered. Thank God. And ten minutes later I was in their lovely apartment recounting stories of the last month and repacking all my luggage. To my amazement it all fit back in the bags I brought with me six months ago (thanks to Cindy who had a little extra space in her suitcase that she let me fill with extra stuff when I left Canberra). The next morning Joann’s husband drove me all the way to the airport which is nearly a 45 min drive! I was very grateful as it would have been a big pain in the butt to take the train with all my stuff. At the airport I purchased some Bundaberg rum for Dad which I had to carry on and then put in my checked bags once I got to LA.

It was a very strange feeling to get on that plane to leave the country that had become my home. It was especially weird because I travelled back in time on that flight. I left Australia at 1:30pm and arrived in LA 13 hours later at 9am that morning. On the flight they served us lunch and then breakfast. It was so weird. In LA I had quite the drama trying to get through customs and catch my connecting flight. It all started when I collected my bags and had to pack the rum into one of them. But I couldn’t find my keys to get into the bag. It seemed like an eternity before I found them and then proceeded to forget to lock it back up again and ran off to the next terminal leaving the keys and the lock on the floor. Of course after I left the terminal I couldn’t get back through to where my keys were so I asked a luggage guy if he could get them for me and he told me to follow him back in but two women immediately blocked my way yelling at me about how I can’t go back through and why did I need to go back there and they didn’t understand anything I was saying. I argued with them until a nice luggage guy came and brought the keys to me. So I went on my way to the next terminal and came to where I needed to clear security. I tossed all my belongings on the X-ray belt and then saw the sign that said I needed my boarding pass and passport that had just gone through the x-ray to walk through the metal detector. So they had to call for a boarding pass check but when I went through the metal detector I set it off so I had to go back and put my belt through the x-ray. So then they had to call for another boarding pass check but I still set off the metal detector. So they escorted me into this glass hallway thing where I had to point at all my stuff that had gone through the x-ray so they could bring it over to me. Then they called a woman over to thoroughly pat me down. So when she was done I was sent on my way but then realized that my belt was still on the x-ray counter because it had gone through after everything else. So I had to ask a security guy if I could have it back and he just looked at me and laughed and said “You are just a trouble-maker today.” I had a laugh too at my ridiculous incompetence. But that was the end of my drama and I went on to my gate with time to spare and without any further problems despite feeling rather foolish. That flight took me to Calgary and when I got off the plane the customs woman looked at my card, asked me where I had been and said “Welcome home.” I nearly burst into tears I was so happy to be back in Canada. I’ve been home now for three weeks and desperately miss Australia and all my friends I made there. But, I’m settling back into life at home and it has been so good to see all my friends and family again but I’m desperately broke and searching for a job right now. I’m looking forward to starting at the U of S again in September and getting back some normalcy in my life. So that’s it from me for now. I’ll be using this same webpage for all my future adventures; so don’t delete it. Next stop: Mexico City (I hope).