Discovering the Outback... Darwin to Alice Springs

Well we've arrived safely in Alice Springs! It's been both a jam-packed yet tedious journey here, but we've had a really good time trekking through the outback!

We awoke at the ungodly hour of 5am on Sunday, yet the bus didn't turn up til gone 6. I was a bit worried that they'd forgotten us, and started thinking weird things to take my mind off that possibility, like if humans started living in the jungle would they eventually turn green through evolution to camoflage with the environment? It was very early, I evidently wasn't completely with it. Anyway, the bus turned up just as I'd decided to make some toast and was spreading my vegemite and jam onto it (on seperate pieces). We got on, then went to the office to pay our kitty money for food and accommodation. Then pretty much slept for a while!

We met some cool people on the bus, it was a small minibus rather than a coach so it was a bit more friendly. We had 5 other English girls, one German girl, a Canadian girl, a french guy who was nearly 40 and 4 Danish lads (Peter, Soren, Soren and Soren). Our first stop was at Adelaide River Inn, where we had some proper breakfast for $10. From here we drove around the corner to the Adelaide River War Cemetery (where they don't normally stop if there's any Japanese on aboard). This was really quite humbling, as the oldest grave I saw was for a 48 yr old, and that was a rarity. Most of them were of lads younger than me or in their twenties. It was very sad. The gardens were very well kept though, so it was a grand tribute to their bravery.

Next stop was at Edith Falls, in the Nitmiluk National Park. It was a small waterfall compared to the ones in the Atherton Tablelands, but still very nice. I didn't spend long in the water as the 'sucky-fish' (as I've now started calling them) had teeth. And they hurt! We got to our camp in time for lunch - this was one of Adventure Tours' permanent camps, just outside of Katherine. We dumped our stuff in our tents (which had bunk beds and thin mattresses in them, but no pillows) and had a dinner of cold meat and salad sandwiches.

After lunch we had a drive back to the Nitmiluk National Park, this time to see if we could swim in the Katherine Gorge. It materialised that we could, but it was an hours walk from the visitors centre to the swimming hole and an hours walk back. And it was unbearably hot. So we opted out, needless to say! Just as we were about to set off to another swimming venue a couple of the Danish lads (Peter and one of the Sorens) decided to do a helicopter ride, so we had to wait in the visitors centre for another half hour, watching the information video over and over! Eventually we made it to the Katherine Hot Pools, and the sign chained across the path said "Park Closed due to Wet Season Floods". Apparently this was a week old and we didn't have to worry. Hmm. When we went to the toilets to get changed the whole of the floor and the walls were covered in dried mud, showing just how high the flood levels can get.The pools were quite nice, a bit murky, but good for a dip. The only unnerving thing was that in the next river a saltwater crocodile had been sighted not a week ago! Then we went back and settled into the camp, having some tea and playing cards with the guys off the bus. That night was SO uncomfortable - since I had no pillow and the beds were really hard I kept waking up in the night really uncomfortable. And I got bitten loads too. Not good when you have to be up at the crack of dawn!

The next morning I opted to sacrifice breakfast for a fifteen minute lie-in and a shower, and in the shower with me was a frog about 6cm long and 4cm tall, just sat on the partition wall watching me! I kept my eye on it the whole time just in case it decided to join me!

The first stop of the morning was Mataranka Thermal Pools, like the Katherine ones but a bit more upmarket! They had photos in the nearby bar of floods they had a few years ago, and they were really shocking. The pools were nice though, if a bit slimy, until a coach-full of ageing Germans turned up. They were all really fat and all wearing tiny, unflattering speedos! And they all got changed out in the open by the pools instead of in the toilets. We didn't know what we'd done to deserve it! By mid-morning I felt really nasty - I had a banging migraine and had started to feel really carsick. Luckily our stop in Daly Waters was not far away. I'd really been looking forward to this stop since I'd read about the infamous Daly Waters Pub in Bill Bryson's Down Under, and it really lived up to my expectations. I've never seen so much crap in one place in my whole life. See, the Daly Waters pub have this tradition where they like all their visitors to leave a memento of themselves, be it underwear, flags, ID cards, drawings, photos... there was even a doll stapled to one of the posts. We didn't leave anything cos the bus was locked as we had our dinner so we couldn't get any of our photos out or anything. Dinner was quite scary as there was a redback spider hiding under the washing up bowl and we only noticed when it came to emptying it out. Eek!

We also had a look at the aircraft hangar whilst we were there, which NASA still use as an emergency landing site. After a quick dip in the pub's pool we set off for the company's permanent camp outside of Tennant Creek, called Juno Horse Farm (horse population of 3). The driver had a funny story about the beginning of Tennant Creek as a town. Apparently they originally set up camp where the telegraph station is, 10km out of the town as it is now. One day a guy bringing beer for them from Alice Springs broke the wheel on his vehicle 10km away from the telegraph station, so walked te rest of the way to get help. Instead of going to fix the wheel and bring the beer back to where they were, they packed up camp and moved the settlement to where the beer was, 10km to the south! And that is where Tennant Creek now stands.

The farm was a real authentic outback station, so it was pretty cool, but full of flies! They were well irritating. We had a dip in their pool and I got called a freak along with the German girl, Anne, cos we could both float and no one else could! Losers! We had a dinner of burritos - yum! - and our driver showed us how to use a swag (a mattress, sleeping bag and tent all in one) by pretending it was a woman. It was quite funny. Then he tried to show us his party trick of sucking a profilactic up his nose and pulling it out of his mouth, but he got stage-fright and ended up throwing up! At bedtime we took our swags outside and kipped under the stars, not before having a big debate on politics and putting the world to rights! It was the most comfortable nights sleep, especially after the night before.

The sky was gorgeous in the morning, like a burnt orange colour on the horizon, merging into a bright yellow then to sky blue as you looked away from the horizon. It was lovely! After packing up our swags ("If they're not tight, you'll be redoing them!") and catching some breakfast we made our way to our first stop which was just down the road, Battery Hill Mining Museum. The tour guide was very informative, and took us down into a representative mine, showing us all the different types of machinery and jobs and things. It was very interesting but she was very thorough, and in a hot, underground environment it was hard to not let the heat bother you and pay attention. She told us that some miners had to work in 52C heat, they only got air-con in the 1980's when women started working in the mines. The drillers also inhaled a load of silica dust and would die after 7 years, and it took them 10 years or so to make the connection. Once the tour finished we all got back on the bus, except the Danish lads who were busy taking photos. So the driver drove off and left them! To our relief he only drove as far as the town and got us some ice creams, then drove back for them. It was funny, especially when he got a phone call from his boss making sure he knew that he'd left them!

The rest of the day was pretty much just spent driving. On a particularly indistinct stretch of road there was a clunking noise coming from under the coach, and something fell off. It turned out to be a part of the air-con system, so we were without air-con for the rest of the day! And I'm sure it had something to do with his driving over that post in the morning. Down the road we turned off the highway to take a look at the Devil's Marbles, which are very large granite rock formations - massive boulders piled on top of each other in very precarious looking positions, like they could just roll off at any given moment. It was awesome.

We stopped for dinner at some random roadhouse in the middle of nowhere along the highway, then it was yet more driving until we arrived in Alice Springs. The town of Alice wasn't the buzzing metropolis emerging out of the dust that I expected, but it's isolation is still really noticeable - it's a town in the middle of the desert, and it looks really incongruous from the outside. Our driver didn't believe that our hostel existed at first as he'd never picked up/dropped off from it. But it's amazing - we ended up in a twin room for a dorm price as they had overbooked, and the owners couldn't be friendlier. It's just like staying at someone's house even though we're in cabins outside, and they have a small spa pool under a gazebo, a trampoline, and a really soft pooch called Vixen, who makes me miss my doggies at home!

We met up with the coach people at the main hostel in the town, Melankas, and the night was spent indulging in cheap meals and drunken debauchery. I had the chicken schnitzel (cos it came with gravy and I'd been having withdrawal symptoms), but Peter had kangaroo so I tried a bit of it. I did feel really guilty, but they do farm them like we farm cows at home in my defence. It was delicious actually, but I felt terrible afterwards. I couldn't stop thinking about Kanga and Baby Roo in Winnie the Pooh. Oh, the shame!

We played games that the hostel organised - some of the guys entered the didjeridoo playing competition, I got a free meal voucher and happy hour drinks all night for knowing so much about James Bond, and we also played musical chairs, using men as chairs! It got down to Me, Claire and some Scottish girl, then Claire and the Scot tied so we did the round again. Then when Me and the Scot tied they made us do an arm wrestle! It was so unfair Claire should've had to do that in the first place! Of course I lost and Claire ended up winning, but she only got a pocket radio and a keychain. Then... 2 bottles of wine, a glass of vodka and coke, a schooner of beer and a shot of sambuca later we had to turn in before we embarrassed ourselves any further!

I'm too hot and uncomfortable to write about today now, so I'll write about it in my next post. Then I'll be able to tell you everything I've done in Alice Springs all together. I'm going to go and make some tea now! Take care all!