Our Excellent Australian Adventure – Part 4

By the time that I publish this part of our Australian Adventures, quit a bit of our trip will have occurred and we’ve been pretty much offline through most of it so I’m writing a lot of this section during a 7 hour bus trip on route to our next destination but still within the Outback part of the trip.

Roughing It

While we have been in the Outback part of Australia we have been experiencing quite a different kind of Australia that we would never have seen in Sydney or Melbourne. Hundred of thousands of square kilometres in size, the Outback is essentially the large “middle” part of Australia that is mostly wilderness but there are pockets of unimaginable beauty that we have been fortunate to experience up close. Without a doubt, the most famous of these is Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) and next to the Sydney Opera House may be the most iconic picture of Australia.

The biggest change to our typical travel itinerary occurred when we left Melbourne and flew to Alice Springs where we picked up by the Groovy Grape bus (our travel host) and drove about 4.5 hours to our first camp sight near Kings Canyon . I should point out that the bus was about an hour late as we were told that the bus broke down and a replacement bus needed to be obtained. Not the most promising start.

Sidebar: we didn’t know it at the time but we would end up having 7 bus breakdowns over the 5 days resulting in us having to stop at the side of the highway to do repairs – several for over an hour. One repair involved using an olive oil can to fix the bus.

Our travel companions who were also on the bus with us and would be spending the next 5 days with us were a mix of people from many different countries but the one common factor was that most of them seemed to be 25 years younger than me. Yes, we were definitely going to be the old folks on this tour. 🙂

Sleeping outside definitely took some getting used to. For the first three nights we were sleeping in sleeping bags under the stars and the thought of all of the poisonous snakes and spiders in Australia weren’t very far from my mind. I’m pretty sure that for the first nights sleeping outside that I didn’t get more than about 3 hours of continuous sleep.

Before I forget to mention it we had been warned about the big problem that flies were in Australia. It wasn’t really until we came to the outback that this became apparent. In Sydney and Melbourne there wasn’t any more flies that we would see in Vancouver but in this area of the country it’s a hugely different situation. The flies are so annoying that it’s pretty much a constant thing that you thinking about as soon as the sun comes out until dusk. We were all forced to end up buying these dorky “fly screens” that you wear over your head. Despite how they look they made a big difference.

It’s The Sites

In those first few days in the Outback we made good use of the time seeing several of the local sites – all of which involved long hikes. The first place that we went to was Kings Canyon and spent about 3.5 hours hiking through the area. The next day was a similar hike through Kata Tjuta and the final day was the crown jewel: Uluru.

All of the places that we went to were similar in respect that they all had a similar red limestone colour that looked spectacular in the morning or evening sunlight.

It’s really hard to describe in words that natural beauty of all three of the sites. Uluru in particular we have seen pictures of for many years but seeing it in person is something both breathtaking and surreal.

On The Road Again

We eventually paid our last visit to Uluru and then headed southwards with our group to the town of Coober Pedy . The drive to Coober Pedy was pretty brutal (over 7 hours long) and was delayed about an hour due to the bus having a flat tire that had us stopped at the side of the highway. This turned out to be the first of a series of mechanical mishaps that occurred with this bus and we got used to being parked at the side of the highway. 🙁

We eventually got underway but didn’t get to Coober Pedy until around 8PM. By that time we were all pretty much exhausted and looked forward to sleeping in real beds again. Coober Pedy is famous for having hotels that are built into the ground to shelter them from the intense heat. However I use the term “hotel” loosely as the place that we stayed at more resembled a prison cell including barred windows and bunk beds.

To Be Continued

So much occurred in the past five days that I need to continue the rest of the story once we get to our next hotel as we have a really early flight tomorrow morning our of Adelaide. I’ll continue and also finish up with the final chapter of Our Excellent Australian Adventure.

Baden