one long road

A loooooooooooooong road to Darwin. Straight up the centre. Hardly another sole on the road. Alice Springs one way, Darwin the other … easy enough to stay on track. A lot of road, a lot of desert, some more rocks, followed by a lot of abandoned buildings and gas/pee stops. The sun finally came out! Lose the first layer: rain jackets off, check!

First stop… MORE rocks! in the middle of nowhere, as per usual. These ones were very bizzare… I’m pretty confident that the Devil totally lost his marbles and they landed here… (hence the name “Devil’s Marbles”).

Yes, that is an anthill. You can account every metre in height to 10 years of building... So you can get a good sense of how hard and long these little ants work. But, where do they all come from? Well... the Queen ant can be expected to live for 75 years producing 7,000 offspring EVERY DAY! While the King only lives about 3 years and the Queen replaces them as they die off. These anthills are as hard as concrete and it just so happens that many people used to and still do crush them down to use them to make bricks and floors! And we thought THIS one was big...

Lose the second layer: jumpers off, check! An old telegraph station, a UFO landing site, an abandoned airport, an abandoned cattle droving station infested with cane toads, and the Daly Waters Pub later we were well on our way to approaching Darwin. It was great to watch the scenery change. Totally red to green, dry to lush, flat to tall. The weather got warmer, the spinifex grass got greener, the plants got fuller and taller and so did the anthills!

Lose the next layer: clothes off and bathers on, check! It was starting to get humid and tropical!

We finally made it to a place with a decent amount of civilization! The city of Katherine: the 3rd largest city in the outback… of about four… Anyways, there’s the beautiful Katherine Gorge in the area so we were able to hike up the hill to get a nice view over the gorge! This gorge may not have been as big and grand as Kings Canyon… but we did see heaps of fruit bats/flying foxes which happen to be the largest species of bat in the world! Then another swim break at Edith Falls … fresh and refreshing!

Next on the list was Kakadu National Park! A World Heritage Area. This park was huge! 20,000 km² which is about the size of Switzerland and man was it beautiful… definitely worth the four day drive to reach it from Alice. We saw a range of things from crocodiles on a a cruise along the Mary River, original ancient Aboriginal wall art from 20,000 years ago, the greenest most stunning grasslands, pools and waterfalls, and some HUGE anthills!

We made it! From sleeping in swags under the stars, and cooking on campfires in Uluru to sleeping in tents and dining in kitchen tents in Kakadu and licking ants that taste like citrus… We’ve gotten used to the before sunrise wake-ups by now and can’t wait for the next one tomorrow to catch out flight to Cairns where we can have a real bed and days filled with warmth and tropical activities!!!

Sincerely,

AUS

An Aussie Appetite: Part VII

Pies

This food itself is not so foreign to us up in the northern hemisphere. The concept of such a thing as a drunk food, quick snack, and specialty baked good is what makes it special down here in Aus. 

 Steak and kidney, steak and mushroom, steak, vegetable, sheppard's, egg and bacon. You name it, they bake it. Crispy, flakey pastery filled with ooey, gooey meat and gravy and sometimes vegetables. You can find these at the corner store, chain shops like "Pie Face", frozen at the grocery store, or in bakeries anywhere throughout the country. The Aussies love their pies and pasties.

Eat these bad boys with your hands and some dead horse (tomato sauce/ketchup). Mmmm.

Sincerely,
AUS

Wondering in Alice Land

The adventure began as we headed into Australia’s red backyard; the Northern Territory. We’ll be touring, bussing, and camping out here for eight days in total. We’ve completed a loop from Alice Springs to Uluru and back and saw heaps of massive red rocks scattered in totally random places throughout the flat red desert.

Alice Springs. A culture shock in a country I’ve been living in for the past five months. A city small town/neighbourhood full of stores selling Aboriginal artwork, souvenirs, and very over-priced alcohol. We’ve learned that Australian history is not so different from Canada’s. Aboriginal tribes and cultures once occupied the land at peace with each other and the land until rude white European settlers invading, killed a bunch of them and took over the land for themselves, segregating, discriminating and isolating them… and they still aren’t pleased about it. Scattered throughout the Northern Territory different Aboriginal tribes are concentrated and there is a large Aboriginal population in Alice Springs.

We spent a day here before we hopped on a bus for a three day tour to Uluru and back.

Its not difficult to see how “The Red Centre” gets it's name. Its big, and red, and in the middle of the country. We DID find it difficult to see why they call it a desert though… since it was cold and rained every day of the three days we spent on our trip there… disregard the fact that the sky is grey and we are wearing the same clothes in all the pictures… this loop took three days, I SWEAR!

So Uluru… one BIG friggen rock in the middle of nowhere. Its actually so big, its quite unbelievable. Here’s another shout out to Joe from “My First Amazing World Explorer” for teaching me all I need to know about travelling the world and making this attraction second on my list of things I knew about Australia, after the Sydney Opera House. Its 384m tall, 11.6 km around the base, and I reckon that it was placed there by Aliens. Its also known as Ayers Rock for those of you who are less educated in the Australian Aboriginal language that we’ve come to find contains an absurd amount of the letters “u” and “o” in every word. We checked out a few stretches here and there along with some ancient Aboriginal wall art, a classroom, and kitchen equipped with an emu cutting board.. but we didn’t end up walking around the entire base because we had to make it to the look-out in time to see the sunset… which was nothing short of spectacular, obviously.

Yeah… that was the sunset… But no worries, the sunrise was MUCH better:

Day two consisted of an early morning to see the sunrise over Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Kata Tjuta which means “many heads” is another extremely large red rock-scape plopped in the middle of nowhere that is also known as “The Olgas”. The name is quite self-explanatory seeing as though there are many large rocks that are big and rounded… just like heads. We did a nice 7km walk through the Valley of the Winds and found that Uluru takes way too much credit and people don’t ever hear about Kata Tjuta until they take sign up for a tour to see Uluru, but in my opinion Kata Tjuta has it beat!

The final day was yet another early morning inclusive of a climb up “Heart-Attack Hill” (which mum survived) to get to the top of Kings Canyon in time to see another sunrise… as usual, it followed the trend by being nothing short of spectacular…

After doing this 7km walk around the rim of Kings Canyon we were starting to feel a little underwhelmed by Uluru and were pleased that the tour doesn’t save it for last because they really nailed the “save the best for last” thing by leaving Kings Canyon until the end! Boy, oh, boy, was it spectacular or what! Along our walk we also walked through the Garden of Eden where we ate some wild figs off of a tree and stopped to snack on some apples.

So maybe we didn’t get to experience the sunset and/or sunrise over Uluru, the amazing night sky untainted by light pollution or the hot, dry desert climate but, hey! How many people get to experience three consecutive days of rain in a desert!? Not many… because it rarely happens. Win.

We also got to meet a great group of people who we’ll hopefully get another opportunity to see at some point down the road!

Hittin’ the frog and toad tomorrow morning. Stuart Highway here we come! See yah in 1500km, Darwin.

Sincerely,

AUS

My Mumma met Me in Melbourne

The last couple weeks in the city have definitely been wild. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and I think I’ve ingested enough goon to satisfy me for life. School finished up with my online Nutrition exam that seven of us did together on a projector screen in an empty classroom on Thursday. School’s out for summer. It was time to celebrate before my trip with mum began. The party started Tuesday with round one of goodbyes. Some of the girls I had spent some good time with throughout the semester went out for a Mexican feast along with some enormous margaritas, post-dinner goon, a night full of dancing and snatching unsuspecting people’s beers and whoppers…

Thursday night was a whole other level of Vic Uni International shenanigans. The farewell function. A heap of sad international exchange students drinking more than enough goon to forget how sad they are that our time together in Melbourne was coming to an end. Drink vouchers and free food arranged by the university, typical pre-drink… karaoke, dancing, and ending with late night loitering at McDonalds and a legendary McDive…

…anyways that was just ridiculous. BUT the even more ridiculous thing was that my mother would be arriving in Melbourne and I would be seeing her the next morning. Whaaaaaaaat? I’ve been living in this strange little traveller, study abroad, Australian… bubble and she is about to come into it. Weird.

Southern Cross Station. I may not have been seeing straight the night before but that was definitely my mother walking off the SkyBus! Is my mum really in Australia? Have we really not seen each other since January? Have I really been in Australia this whole time? ..I guess so? It still is very strange to try and wrap my head around the whole situation.

So she arrived and I didn’t let the jet-lag get to her for one second! We trained home to Newport to drop off her things in MY house and headed straight back to the CBD. Four days in Melbourne. What to do and see? First stop we checked out the National Gallery of Victoria where we viewed some beautiful Australian and Aboriginal Australian artwork and sculptures. Then I experienced some major déjà vu when we wandered the same laneways littered with cafes and graffiti as I did when I first arrived here, eating at a familiar well-priced baguette sandwich on DeGraves Street. We did a walking tour where we learned some history of the city and saw a few more interesting places in the CBD. From laneways, to the State Library, to Federation Square, , to a view of the Eureka Tower, to the Queen Victoria and Prahran Markets, to Brunswick and Chapel Streets, from Chinese food in Chinatown to pizza on Lygon Street, from souvenir shopping to just shopping… we did it all.

My mum also got a chance to take a day tour on the Great Ocean Road I ended up spending my day with our Aussie friend Tegan exploring the “Newport Lakes” area. Looked a lot like something you’d come across in High Park or somewhere at home. First my mum being here… then this place… home? Who knew there was such a beautiful little water hole surrounded by forest, gardens and pathways right in my very own nuclear and industrial powerplant suburb!

Tomorrow morning we leave for Alice Springs to begin our adventure through the Outback for the next eight days!

Sincerely,

AUS