Day 166
Today begins with another later start to the day and a
fantastic brunch in a café overlooking the beach in the shopping centre. We walk along the shore for miles and mile in
the afternoon taking our time and just chilling out. It is really nice to be in
one place for a few days. It means we can really relax and enjoy the place. On
our way back we price renting surf boards to teach the girls how to surf. We
are quoted a crazy price. I am getting fed up of being quoted five and six
times the actual price just because we are tourists. The locals seem to have
the opinion that because you are white you are rich and the have a right to
charge whatever they like. (Definitely ready for a place with fixed prices,
even if they are going to be a lot higher than here at least everyone pays the
same!)
The pool is very inviting back in the hotel so we hop in for
a dip and wile the next few hours away reading catching up on a few internet
chores in the fabulous air conditioned rooms. Did I mention it is really hot
here?
We eat in a little local place for dinner. I have the local
noodle dish, called Cop Cai, which tastes exactly like the chow mein for the
local Chinese take away at home. It was yummy! Brenda has a fantastic Balinese
curry which is a little milder than the curries from the last few countries.
After dinner we decide to walk down the main street a bit and check out a few
of the bars for our big night out tomorrow.
We find a nice sports bar and order a cocktail. The cocktail costs more
than our dinner so we decide that one is enough.
Day 167
Today is our beach day. We stroll down the beach and settle
into sun chairs beside one of the beachside hotels. Looking at the surf we are
sceptical about being able to catch anything out there but after a swim I soon
realise that even though they look small they are really powerful. We ask about
prices to rent boards and again are given ridiculous prices. One guy quoted us
250,000 Rupia but when we asked a few guys who were out surfing how much they
paid they said only 50,000R. (Ok so 10,000Rupia is about 1USDollar so it
doesn’t sound that expensive but would you pay five times the price of
something just because you were somewhere different?) Rant over!
We settle for poi lessons from Brenda instead of surfing. Brenda manages to attract a bit of an
audience, a little Japanese kid runs over and drags his dad back to watch her.
He is very shy and when she asks if he wants a go he hides behind his dad’s
legs, so cute.
As part of the deal with the chairs we eat dinner in the
hotel. Whole fresh fish is the special of the day and I can’t resist. It was
delicious. After a bit of fire poi on the beach we head back to the hotel to
get ready for the big night ahead.
Soon we are all bundling into a taxi to bring us to the
party end of the beach. We have a great night which is only dampened a little
by my purse being taken while chatting to a seemingly nice Australian guy. I’m
a little annoyed about it but what’s done is done. I cancel my cards before hitting the hay sometime
near dawn.
Day 168
The late starts are becoming a habit now and so are the
take-aways. It’s Burger King for lunch today while we chat on Skype to home and
catch up on all the gossip and message Wacker, who has just arrived in Darwin.
We can’t wait to see him. He is looking forward to being on the trip and
finally meeting everyone. We have talked so much about him on the trip everyone
is really excited to meet and they nearly feel as if they know him already.
The day is another lazy day spent between the pool and the
hotel room and an early night.
Day 169
Our final day in Bali, we are flying to Australia and
meeting Wacker tonight. Can’t wait!!!!!!!!!
Martin and Will arrived last night so after packing up all
our stuff we say hello and catch up on their adventures since we left them in
Singapore. They went to see the Orang-utans in Burma. It sounds great. We pass
a few hours in the shopping centre and chilling out by the pool waiting to
leave for the plane.
We make it to the airport with loads of time to spare. I
start worrying about the weight of our bags. We have so much stuff and I’ve
heard that the airline is really strict. We weigh in well under the max though
and we are all relieved. One obstacle down, only customs to deal with now.
We touch down
and get through customs without a hitch
and soon we are out, meeting Wacker and Adam our driver for the final leg of
our trip. It’s the early hours of the morning so it is straight to the hostel and after a quick
catch up with Wacker I’m off to bed.
Day 170
I spend the morning in the supermarket with Adam getting all
the supplies we need for the next two weeks. I’m ‘in training’ for the trip in
Jan for the next two weeks. After a bite
to eat Adam and the gang head back to the campsite and Wacker, Brenda and I
head for the lagoon to cool off. The lagoon is amazing. The water is really
warm but still refreshing and we end up playing catch with a few local guys,
which I am rubbish at by the way.
We treat ourselves to a nice dinner tonight in an Italian restaurant.
It is really nice but we are all very tired and we have an early start so after
dinner we head back to the hostel and turn in for the night.
Wacker
Day 171
We got up early to meet up with everybody else on the trip.
I was very disappointed that the big orange truck wasn’t in Oz but the mini bus
did the job. We left for Kakadoo National Park at 8.30am. after a short drive
we entered the national park. We went to the visitors centre first to have
lunch in the shade but were moved out to the sun by the staff because we didn’t
buy anything in the café. After lunch we explored the museum in the centre and
watched a couple of information movies about the park. Next we went further
into the park and visited a few spots with ancient aboriginal rock art, it was
very interesting and one place in particular offered a great panoramic view of
some of the park. We camped beside JimJim billabong that night but we couldn’t
swim because of the salt water crocodiles L
I didn’t get much sleep as it was like trying to sleep in a sauna. It was a
great first day to my truck life everyone is lovely and very friendly.
Yvonne
Day 172
The flies are awake and raring to go by the time I drag
myself out of my tent this morning. As soon as I open my eyes I can hear the buzzing.
We were all doing our best to ignore them last night thankful that they weren’t
mosquitoes until one starting biting. It was a March fly and it really hurt.
The minute I stick my head out of the tent they are in my ears and trying to
get into my eyes and mouth. They are really annoying even the smelly candle at
breakfast has no effect on them. We all eat our peanut butter sandwiches with
one had in a fanning action swatting the flies from our face or the food. This
we become expert at over the next two weeks.
We leave Kakadoo national park and make our way to Katherine
gorge. At the start of the drive we are all on kangaroo watch but soon we fall
into old habits of napping. We were all expecting the landscape to be brimming
with wildlife like on the nature programs, but like everything on TV it’s not
really like that. We have to wait until we are at Katherine Gorge to see our
first Kangaroo, and it was worth it. After a picnic lunch we find out that the
walkways are closed for repair today and that the swimming area has been closed
too. We are all disappointed but walk to the river to take a peek at what we
are missing. On the green waiting to greet us is our first real life Kangaroo.
The cameras are out in a shot and we are snapping away. We don’t get too close
though.
We relax by the pool for an hour or so while some of the
others go on a boat trip. The weather is so hot the water in the pool is really
warm but it is still refreshing from the baking sun. You would definitely know
that we have been backpacking for the last 5 months. All the girls are straight
to the sinks to wash the clothes we are wearing put them out to dry in the
sunshine. This is going to be a hard habit to break.
All scrubbed and in clean clothes we bundle back into the
bus and are on our way to Katherine. It is a small one road town that reminds
you of the saying ‘one horse town’. We
pick up a few bits for dinner and head for the outback again.
Brenda
Day 173
Mataranka natural springs was our first stop today. When you
hear natural springs you think of steaming geezers and bubbling jocose-like
pools. This was my first thought when I heard we were going here and frankly I
was not looking forward to it because it was so hot. It turned out to be a
beautiful outdoor pool with flying foxes in the canopy that were moving about
in the day. It was crystal clear blue water with steps in to the pool. It was
deep at one end and shallow at the other. It was really good to get in and swim
in the water that was just a little cooler than the air temperature. We had
some fun with my underwater camera while in the pool.
All too soon it was time to move on, so we loaded up the bus
and headed for Daily Waters, a tiny village that used to be an army air corps
base and now consisted of a campground, a pub and garage. The pub was amazing,
it was full of foreign money, id cards, t-shirts, bras, caps, anything people
felt like leaving behind, and among all the other memorabilia was a row of GAA
COUNTY JURSEYS!!! They had at least 20 counties as well as some local ones people
had left and some rugby ones too. It was so strange; they had a tree of flip
flops in the beer garden and a number old car grills and number plates. We had
lunch there which was a humongous burger and chips, it was a great burger then
off to the bus and onto the main road again.
We pulled in for the night and cooked on fire and sat and
had a chat around it after dinner, did a bit of star gazing then headed to bed.
Day 174
Our first stop of the day was Tenant Creek to stock up on
supplies before heading off to the Devils Marbles or Karlu Karlu. It is a flat
desert landscape with huge off-round boulders leaning on each other and on the
ground. Some had split, others looked weather beaten and there were signs of a
few parties in the area over the last while. We did the Chinese tourist thing
of trying to trick the camera that we were pushing them, picking them up in our
fingers etc. which was fun then ran for shelter of the bus as the sun was
getting pretty hot as we reached midday. We parked up early that evening as we
were close to Alice Springs and we didn’t want to get too close too early the
next day as it wouldn’t fit in the time frame. Corinna was to leave us the next
day until the drive into Sydney so this was her last night camping so we had a
nice evening with her reminiscing on the past 6 months.
Day 175
The first stop of the morning was the Tropic of Capricorn
which was marked with a monument and then we headed on to the sign for Alice
Springs. The Humidity had decreased so it was much a nicer drove the further
south we went. We stopped in Alice Springs for some shopping, a quick check of
our emails and a few party treats for Gayle’s birthday. We headed from there
out to a campsite near Ayres Rock National Park. It was a nice campsite, with
showers and a bar which was so expensive you wouldn’t bother with it. We set up
camp and the wind started picking up. The campsite was pretty open so we
huddled our tents together for shelter and hit the showers. We cooked dinner
and stayed up chatting for a while but went to bed early as we were off to
catch sun rise at Uluru the next morning.
Day 176
We got up in the dark, packed up the tents and loaded into
the van before heading off into the park. We arrived at Uluru/ Ayres Rock at
dawn, but it was a cloudy day so no spectacular colours you see on the ads
though it did go very red when we were eating breakfast in the car park . It
was still pretty amazing to see the big giant stone up close. We then headed
off into the park.
Our next stop was the base walk around the base of the monolith.
It was a 10.6km walk and because it was so cloudy it was possible to walk all
the way around without dying of the heat. There were small signs explaining
that the rock was of huge spiritual significance. There were only certain areas
we allowed to take photos. There were information areas telling myths and
legends for their culture. It was an enjoyable walk we saw some strange birds
with Mohawks at the end. They were funny.
After the base walk we went to the Kata Tjuta to other
monoliths in the area. We walked through a gorge that was really red and bare
from the outside but the further you walked in the greener and rainforest like
it became. It was very beautiful. We
then headed for the tourist village for lunch before going to the Cultural
centre to learn about the cultural significance for the area. We spent a few
hours there watching film clips and reading the information on the walls. They
didn’t allow photos be taken in the centre. After we left the centre we headed
over to the sunset place. We set out a cold dinner and ate it while waiting for
the sun set. We had a little birthday celebration for Gayle while we were there
and we watched as the sun went down through the clouds for an uneventful sun
set. We were happy to have been there and watched the tourists around us get
there champagne for sun set and eavesdropped on the Chinese tourists with their
funny conversations. We then headed back to the campsite and had a small quiet
party before heading to bed.
Day 177
We were on cook group so we got up had a shower and made
breakfast before heading off on the road again. We had a long drive day and
only stopped at roadhouses for a short amount of time at each place. We bush
camped that night.
Day 178
We were up and out early in morning off to Coober Pedy. It
is a small mining town in the centre which mines for opals. We had the option
on staying in an underground hostel but only 2 people decided to stay. Once
they were checked in it was off to the laundry. It was good to get some clothes
washed as we were running out of clean clothes at this stage.
After the laundry was sorted we went to an amazing pizza
place that had won loads of awards and had the most amazing pizza of the trip.
We couldn’t leave Coober Pedy without seeing the opals so we went to a miners
shop and had a look around. Some of the girls bought some opals and Wacker with
the help of all the girls picked up my Christmas present. We visited an
underground hotel with a small museum before grabbing a shower at the local
petrol station and heading out of town to camp in the desert. We camped closed
together to add some shelter to our tents as it was very exposed if the wind
got strong. We had dinner and watched the sun set. It was a beautiful sun set
and we played some music and then headed to bed.
Day 179
We had a quick breakfast and headed into town picked up
people from the hostel and then headed off to the road again for another drive
day. I was in the front passenger seat for the day so I was on animal watch,
tricky, trying to stay awake after sleeping during the day for the last 6
months. First stop of the day was a
world famous of kangaroo road sign and we were on the road again for Hart’s
Lake, it is a salt lake that dried up thousands of years ago that only left the
salt flats so it was like snow everywhere in the 40 degree heat, it was hard
and crunchy when you walked on it. There were about a million flies in the area
and they all converged on us as we got out of the van and they stayed with us
all the time until we got back on the van. They were in our hair on our clothes
and all around our faces. GURR. We had to cross a railway track that went from
Darwin to Port Augusta, one line, to get to the lake, while we were out on the
lake a train passed and it had at least 100 carriages on it, it was very
impressive.
We got back on the truck and went to a road house to have
lunch and to hide from the sun for an hour. That afternoon we reached Port
Agusta, we had successfully made it through the centre of Australia and the
next was the road east. We picked up some shopping and headed off into the
country side. The countryside had drastically changed in the space of an hour
we were now driving though fields of crops, lots of crops and more civilisation
that we had seen in the past 4 days. We camped up for the night in a layby with
picnic benches and had fish for dinner. It was lovely, in a milk sauce. We sat
and chatted for a while after it got dark and then headed to bed.
Day 180
We were woken by bees on some tents in the morning so we
were able to get on the road early. Our first stop of the day was a Gum Tree
that was supposed to be the oldest in Australia, over 500 years old. Then we
stopped at a house on the side of the road that looked like an old dolls house
from the outside. It was fascinating inside and we explored it. It was dark and
dusty inside with grain sacks on the wall, a collection of old toys and
knickknacks everywhere including a gold vinyl of one of the doors album. It was
a strange place, like something out of a scary movie.
After our stop there we hit the road again for Broken Hill
for lunch and to pick up some Kangaroo Sausages or Kanga Bangers for dinner and
to McDonalds for lunch. We hit the road again and camped in the bush again on
the edge of a field for the night. We
were starting to get nostalgic as we were almost finished our 6 months and
starting the next chapter, so we chatted by the fire for a while then headed to
bed.
Day 181
We had an uneventful morning and stopped in Ningan for lunch
of “Bogan Shire” (apparently a bogan is like a chav). It had a sign up for
Bogan Shire so they really didn’t care. We had lunch there, it was lovely
little town where everything looked well-kept and like there was loads of town
pride. We then hit the road and passed
signposts for Clare, Louth and Tullamore. We stocked up in Dubbo with supplies
for our second last night camping. It was a lovely site at Ponto Falls, the
campground was on the side of a farm and a river. The irrigation system was
slowly circling the field and we had the cockatoo’s to keep us company. We pulled
up made camp, chopped some wood and rang home for a quick check in. we sat
around and talked for the evening about the tour our favourite bits and our
worst bits. We all had different answers and different bits each of us forgot
about that were all extremely good or bad.
Day 182
We were woken by the cockatoo’s at dawn so there was no
going back to sleep so we got up, cleaned up as much as possible and headed for
Orange (it’s a townland and no, not everything is orange! I was disappointed).
Orange is the heart of Australia’s wine country so we couldn’t pass through
without going wine tasting. 10 in the morning is not the best time to do so
but, we were on our holidays. We enjoyed the experience and some tried to make
out they were professionals or wine buffs, it was funny. We had a great giggle.
A few of us bought a few bottles for the party that night and headed off for
the Bathurst to do a lap in our minibus with trailer of their race track.
The racetrack was fun, it was open all day everyday apart
from race days and a speedlimit which apparently they do speed checks on. Crazy
or what? The track is built around houses so I suppose it is understandable. We
did our lap and enjoyed the jokes about catching up with the fast cars that
happened to be on the tracks when we were there. We then headed into town to
stock up for Adam’s famous curry for the last night and lunch, then back on the
road for the afternoon to find a place to camp for the night.
We pulled up on the edge of a forest and camped just in of
the road. It was a nice spot more like home than anywhere else we had camped.
We unpacked the trailer and van of everything and worked on packing everything
back into our rucksacks, ready for off the next day. We had a leech incident
while putting up our tents, I was pretty freaked out after that. We then
cleaned the bus and trailer before loading back up again. We then sat around
for dinner of the most amazing indian food I have ever had, it was so tasty and
so many spices mixed together. We ate our fill and then some it was so good. We
then got the party started with music and a few drinks that lasted well into
the evening with everyone choosing the music and joining in. We finished up in
the van at around half 10 or 11 which is pretty late for camping and headed to
bed.
Day 183 – Last Day of the Uk To Oz – Silk Route 2012
We were slower to get up and moving, but there was less to
do so we got on the road early and headed for the Blue Mountains. They are
called the Blue Mountains because the mist given off by the Eucalyptus Trees in
the forests makes them look blue. We wound our way up into them to get into the
centre to Hartly where the Three Sisters stand to pick up Corinna and have a
look at the breath taking views. It was a beautiful day and we took a short
walk down to the viewing point and around the area and then headed back to have
a look around the shops and shopping centre. It was a quiet town and small with
tourists traveling in and out every day by the bus load but it was very nice. I
had the most amazing cup of tea in a café there, it was the best of the trip
with proper tea and pasteurised milk, AMAZING!!!
We left Hartly at lunch time and got on the road for Sydney,
all the time counting down the kilometres on the signposts as we went. It was
very exciting and sad at the same time to say goodbye to everyone after such a
long time with eachother in such close quarters.
We eventually started to see the city build up around us and
the traffic started to build then just as we crossed a bridge we saw the Harbour
Bridge and Sydney Opera House in the distance. We got very excited and the bus got very
noisy. We travelled through the city to get down to the harbour to get to the
Opera House and pulled up on a side street and walked down to the harbour front
for photos and a great look at the city, the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge
and the Rocks.
We had actually made it, survived 6 months on a bus/truck
thing all the way from London to Sydney. 29 countries in 26 weeks and here we were
standing at one of the most iconic Harbours in the world and only a week and a
half away from Christmas.
After our photos it was time to unload the trailer and bus
and say goodbye to Adam then say goodbye to some of the other travellers as they
were staying elsewhere. We finally grouped up together with a few of the girls
and loaded our bags into a taxi and sent them to the hostel with 2 people while
the other 4 of us walked up to the hostel ourselves. We made plans to see the
others who were staying around the next day so it was more of a see you later
than anything else. We walked all the way up town to the other side of the city
centre and checked in. We all filed in for a shower and then went out for food
and a night out to celebrate our finishing the trip.
