Our holiday

16^th February 2008

to

26^th February 2008

Although it was only a ten-day holiday, we had a wonderful time. Unfortunately it was far too short and we could have spent more time at different places if time permitted. Saturday morning the 16^th February 2008 saw us board a Qantas Flight from Brisbane to Adelaide.

What a difference it now makes to book luggage at the terminal. It is computerised. After receiving our slips and fastened them safely onto our luggage, they were placed onto a conveyer belt and that was the last we saw of them until we arrived in Adelaide some two and a half hours later.

The flight from Brisbane to Adelaide was smooth and uneventful. It was when we arrived at Adelaide that we noticed the temperature was well into the forties, hot and dry. Wouldn’t you know it after we loaded our luggage into a taxi, the driver was a new Australian who couldn’t speak the English or understand where we wanted to go. He didn’t know where Ridges Adelaide was situated. What a joke.

I looked at Gwen and said to myself here were go again. Last year we visited Sydney and had the run-around with taxi drivers who couldn’t speak the English or understand. Instead of costing a regular fare from the airport to the hotel, they took us around the globe and charged for it. This time I was a wake-up to their antics and asked to look at his street directory. He kept on driving and did not say a word. When I located the hotel and where it was situated, suddenly his memory magically returned and he drove directly to the hotel.

Adelaide was dry and hot, not like home where everything was green and lush. It is difficult to comprehend how diverse our country is to weather and conditions. Ridges Hotel was absolutely wonderful. It was lunchtime when we arrived.

After settling into our room, we dined at another hotel further down the road. The area must have been the first settled in Adelaide because the houses were joined together and looked old and in disrepair. Most were small cottages adjoining the footpath with the entry almost at the front door? It was quaint to look at.

After an afternoon nap we walked to another hotel for dinner. We had a small punt on the poker machines and WE WON! I couldn’t believe our luck. It was probably because of karma with the taxi driver. It’ll teach them to muck around with Queenslanders. After a wonderful dinner we returned to our accommodation.

Our trip from Adelaide was to start the following day by boarding The Legendary Ghan to Darwin. Both Gwen and I were excited as a pair of young school children waiting to board the train for the very first time. The Ghan travels 2,979 kilometres between Adelaide and Darwin traversing the Australian continent from south to north.

We were in the Gold Kangaroo Service Cabin. Our cabin consisted of seating, which folds up into two bunks at night for sleeping, a shower, toilet and washbasin. The Ghan is the ultimate journey through the heart of Australia. Leaving Adelaide it made its way through the Adelaide Plains, which at any other time of the year would have been a salad bowl but unfortunately because of the hot weather, the plains were drought.

Bushman’s Light Lunch was served in the dining car not long after boarding the train. We dined with a couple of other travellers from Perth who’d flown over on the same flight as the Australian Cricket Team to play Indian in the one-day series. I was envious and wanted to know whether they met them. All they told me was that all of the team members were well mannered and behaved.

Settling back in our cabin we listened to the Journey Commentary about how the country was explored from Adelaide to Port Augusta. John McDouall Stuart was one of Australia’s greatest and most successful explorers. He sailed to Australia in September 1838, aged 23 years, and arrived on 17^th January 1839. His epic foray through the heart of the continent from Adelaide to Darwin pioneered a path for the Overland Telegraph Line connecting Adelaide to the rest of Australia.

 Passing through Port Pirie between Crystal Creek and Port Augusta we were told to look out the left-hand side of the carriage window for an imposing chimney stake.

This stake marked the home of world’s largest lead refinery. Founded in 1848, Port Pirie was South Australia’s first provincial city named after a vessel, the John Pirie. The smoke stack measures 205 metres in height.

It was then time for the Sunset Dinner and this time we dined with a couple from Victoria. Camel was on the menu with kangaroo sausages. Gwen ate the camel and commented how similar it tasted to beef and the sausages were dark and rich in flavour. When we returned to our cabin the beds had been made up into double bunks and it was time for sleep. Along with the rattling and swaying of the train and often starting and stopping to allow other trains to pass, it was memorable to say the least.

 At 6.30am the following morning the Steward served us an early morning cup of coffee and tea in the cabin. Sunrise breakfast was served in the dining car when we met a couple from Victorian. They were a retired couple making their way to Darwin. Another journey commentary greeted us as we settled into our cabin when we returned from breakfast. Our double bunks had been folded back to a seat. The commentary was from Port Augusta to Alice Springs. We stopped briefly at Port Augusta and shortly afterwards continued onto Alice Springs. In 1854 Port Augusta operated as a seaport servicing the developing pastoral and mining industries to both north and west.

By 1916 the importance as a seaport diminished following the development of the Transcontinental Railway. From the early days of development through the centre of Australia, the Afghan cameleers played a critical role. The camel trains adapted quickly for travelling long distances through the hot, inhospitable interior, and the Afghans has mastered the skill of handling these ‘ships of the desert’. The Ghan remains a monument to the Afghan cameleers’ courage and resilience in blazing a permanent trail into Central Australia.

We were just about to go through the railway siding of Kulgera when the announcement came through the speakers to keep a lookout for The Iron Man. Immediately we both looked out of the window and saw a statute of The Iron Man. It is a monument built by the railway workers to mark the site of the one-millionth concrete sleeper laid on the stretch of railway line between Tarcoola and Alice Springs.

Prior to arriving at Alice Springs we crossed the Finke River. You may ask, so what? Well, this river extends over 1000 kilometres from the McDonnell Ranges in the north into Lake Eyre in South Australia. The river runs its entire course a couple of times every century and is a popular place for the Aboriginal people, who call it ‘Larapinta’ means ‘serpent’. The Finke River is listed in ‘The Guinness Book of Records’ as the oldest river in the world. It was time for us to depart the train at Alice Springs for our adventure to Uluru.

Great Southern Rail Travel had arranged all of our train details, accommodation and even tickets for the shuttle bus from Alice Springs Railway to our accommodation at Alice Springs. We stayed at Aurora Alice Springs close to the centre of the city. That night we dined at the Red Ochre Restaurant. It happened to be the celebration of Chinese Year of the Rat. While we were sitting peacefully devouring barramundi and chicken dishes suddenly the restaurant was awakened by a Chinese Dragon to chase away all of the spirits. It was fascinating and exciting.

Ron Thynne, General Manager of Aurora Hotel kindly emailed these photographs of the night. Thank you Ron for doing that for us. It was very kind. Chinese New Year commenced on 5^th February 2008. We were most fortunate to have been dining at the Red Ochre Restaurant that evening when the Chinese Dragon came to chase away the spirits. It was totally unexpected and most exhilarating for each of us. We will never forget the experience. Service at the Restaurant was the best we had received on our whole holiday. The waitress’s smile and her dedication to role was excellent.

The following morning we were off on a two-day coach tour to Uluru with Australian Pacific Tours (APT Tours) and our driver/tour guide Scott was the worst tour guide we encountered on our trip. On most of our travels we have been spoilt with kindness from the drivers who double as tour guides, but this time we were burdened with this fellow, Scott whom we hope that we never meet again. It was disastrous.

His introduction to us travellers and paying patrons was ‘I’m Scott – if you want to know anything come down and talk to me and when we’re stopped for coffee, that’s Scott time and I don’t want to be annoyed.’ He made himself clear that he didn’t want much from his customers. We did what he asked. We minded our own business. Anyway without his knowledge of Central Australia I’ve gleaned from the Central Australia Holiday & Visitor Guide some information, which should have been past onto us by him.

Shortly after departing Alice Springs the rugged MacDonnell Ranges, made famous by the watercolours of Aboriginal artist Albert Namitjira was on our right hand side. It’s 466 kilometres from Alice Springs to Uluru and takes most of one day to complete the journey. We followed the Stuart Highway south and turned onto Lasseter Highway. There’s a story to be told about Harold Bell Lasseter who made famous the search for gold west of Alice Springs.

He boasted about knowing where gold could be found west from Alice Springs from a map he was given by a prospector who was in hospital with him. Unfortunately the prospector died before Lasseter asked about the map.

It happened that he enlisted the help of a couple of prospectors who invested their time and money to travel with him in search of the gold. After searching and finding nothing, the two prospectors left Lasseter and returned to Alice Springs. Lasseter continued his quest but didn’t find gold and perished in the desert. When the map was found on his person it was discovered that the author of the map, not Lasseter, had sketch the map showing the gold was west when it was east of Alice Springs. The gold was found and Lasseter was buried in the cemetery at Alice Springs.

Our first stop was Mt Ebenezer. In the distance was Mt Conner, a flat top mountain. If you didn’t know it was Mt Conner one could take it for Uluru. Our next stop was the Outback Camel Farm. Gwen and I had a ride on a camel. It was a little cantankerous because when it stopped for us to dismount, it wouldn’t kneel down to let us off. We were suspended in mid-air wanting for this ‘ship of the desert’ to let us down. Eventually the handler encouraged the camel to kneel and we dismounted. It was an experience we will never forget.

Finally we arrived at Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park. Our accommodation was at Ayers Rock Resort – Desert Gardens Hotel. Normally when we booked into a hotel it was only a matter of finding our particulars and booking us in. Not this time. Our particulars hadn’t been recorded. After much standing around, waiting for the attendant to find our booking at the foyer of the hotel, APT (Australian Pacific Tours) hadn’t made the booking, so we thought. We waited and finally our particulars were located in the computer – not under our name but under my Christian name – Thomas. At last we were showed to our room in the middle of the afternoon with the flies, heat and time wasted. At the time we thought that we’d killed a Chinaman with the luck we were having.

No sooner had we settled into our room and not having time to have anything to eat or drink we were summoned to appear at the foyer of the hotel for our afternoon trip to the domes of Kata Tjuta and a sunset view of Uluru. We purchased two fly veils. It was the best five-dollar investment we made on the trip. There were literally thousands of the little blithers. We each carried one litre bottle full of water and an extra litre and a half bottle full of water. It’s not unusual to drink up to eight litres of water per day in that climate.At times one has to make a decision on what is the better action to take in any circumstances.

When we were sight seeing around Uluru (The Rock) listening to our Tour/Guide describe the aboriginal paintings displayed on the walls and also a dreamtime story attached to each painting, when is enough, enough. I don’t deny that there may be some truth to the dreamtime story but in my mind it was a magnificent ploy to attract visitors and tourists from all over the globe to view The Rock in the centre of Australia.

Our guide drove us to Walpa Gorge where there are three tall structures of mountain sitting side-by-side with a dreamtime story of how they were placed there by the spirits. A walking track takes you through each mountain. Gwen and I started the walk and after about one and half kilometres decided it would be more comfortable sitting in the air condition bus instead of walking across rock, fighting flies and suffering temperatures of almost fifty degrees. How Aboriginals walked all of those distances in their day is beyond me.

It was time to gather at the Sunset Viewing Area to watch with two thousand others tourists the changing of the colours of Uluru as the sun set in the western sky. Preciously at 7.26pm the changes made to The Rock was magnificant. I wondered how on each afternoon thousands of tourists gather at this very spot to see the ultimate change of colour to The Rock. We’re in the centre of Australia and all of these people plus myself are here to watch The Rock change colour, I thought as I sipped my orange drink and crunched into a piece of cheese provided by the bus company.

Tourists standing next to us were from England and all they ever wanted to do was to watch The Rock change colour. We returned to our hotel and after dining couldn’t wait to lie down and sleep.

Four-thirty the following morning we were up again and off to see The Rock with thousands of other tourists this time viewing it as the sun rose above the horizon. It is truly remarkable how The Rock changes colours almost every five minutes as the sun breaks into daylight. There we enjoyed a morning cup of coffee and a biscuit whilst viewing the sun’s first rays strike ‘The Rock’. Then it was off to Mutitjulu waterhole, to see ancient aboriginal rock art and hear the stories of Aboriginal legends.

Our next stop was the Cultural Centre where we heard a story from the evolution of man to present day history. After returning to our hotel we had lunch and enjoyed a walk around the resort. It was time to return to Alice Springs.

The Ghan wasn’t departing Alice Springs until 6pm that night so we had almost a full day to fill in before boarding it. With a couple of friends we’d met we decided to go on The Alice Explorer Town Tour. What a wonderful time we had to fill in our time.

It’s a hop-on, hop-off tour. Our first stop was Old Telegraph Station, which happened to be the original site of Alice Springs.

It was wonderful to witness the yesteryear of how people lived under such harsh conditions. We even saw a two-seat earth toilet.

School of the Air was our next stop. This is a place, which we could have stayed most of the day.

A school teacher was teaching pupils across 1.3 million square kilometres in a studio via the Internet. We sat in front of a viewing area to hear and see how the teacher taught his pupils via the Internet. It was fascinating. A film gave us a history of School of the Air.

Anzac Hill was our next stop. There are 360 degree views of Alice Springs from this point overlooking the town. As its name portrays it is a monument of the fallen comrades from Alice Springs who died in the wars.

Royal Flying Doctors Base was our next stop. We were lucky to arrive when a film was shown giving us a history lesson of the Royal Flying Doctors Services established in 1939 by Doctor Flynn. It is a story of how medicine, aviation and radio have been jointly put to work in the service of the people who live, work and travel in the remote inland of Australia. The Service covers more than 7,150,000 square kilometres.

Across the road from the Royal Flying Doctors Base is Alice Springs Reptile Centre our next stop. The Reptile Centre displays over 100 reptiles of 40 different species. When we arrived a snake handler asked us to step aside whilst he moved a tiger snake from its cage for milking. Myself, I’m afraid of snakes and I don’t mind admitting it. I’m not certain because of the fact they might bite you and their venom spreads throughout your body and you may die – that could be one of my reasons for not being too friendly with them.

Gwen on the other hand wanted to throw her fear of snakes away and had a six foot python wrapped around her. I took photographs to prove see did it. She is much braver than I and I don’t mind admitting to it.

Opposite the Alice Springs Reptile Centre is Her Majesty’s Gaol and Labour Prison Alice Springs. This gaol is more than a collection of static buildings; it is a social history of its time. The buildings were modified with the changing needs of the prisoners, staff, town and society. It opened on 1^st November 1938 and closed 16^th July 1996. As we walked through the hallways sighting the cells that accommodated the prisoners one would swear there were ghosts from the past protecting the prison.

At 6.00pm we boarded The Ghan and set off on our venture north to Katherine. Shortly after joining the train the Sunset Dinner was called in the Dining Car. Our bunks were laid down into beds while we were absent from the cabin. Next stop would be the town of Katherine.

After a good night’s sleep at 6.30 the following morning we were greeted with cup of coffee served by the Train Manager in our cabin. Daylight Breakfast was next and as we enjoyed breakfast with our fellow passengers it was noticeable that the country north of Alice Springs was much greener than south of Alice Springs. Arrival at Katherine was around 9.00am. We booked the Gorge Boat Cruise while we were at Katherine. The train stops for four hours.

The town of Katherine in Australia’s Top End is home to one of the areas most spectacular natural wonders – the Katherine Gorge. Our tour of the Gorge took three hours and the remainder of the time we spent viewing the locals basking in the sun lying full length along the median strip in the centre of the town. Some were drinking from clear bottles and I doubt if the bottles contained water. I must say the inhabitants were dressed in the latest clothing.

Discovering the sheer beauty of the Gorge was breath taking. I’d never seen such magnificence before in my life. As we sat back in the cruise boat the view of sandstone cliffs that have been there thousands of years, sheer rock reaching for the sky. We could only discover the first Gorge because of the amount of water running through it at the time.

Returning to the train we relaxed arriving at Darwin at 5.30pm that evening. This time we experienced no difficulties with our lodgings at the Holiday Inn on the Esplanade. It was too late for our dinner so we walked to a Thai Restaurant nearby to enjoy a meal. It was time for bed and sleep. Our bed had three different types of pillows and if we wanted the service we could have had a particular aroma sprayed from the top of our bed head to help us sleep. We didn’t need it.

The next day was a leisure day – a day off. What would we do? We wanted to see some crocodiles. Aussie Adventure Holidays had a tour of the wetlands and a cruise to see jumping crocodiles. We booked.

It was on the Adelaide River 64 kilometres south of Darwin. To see crocodiles swim toward the flat bottom boat was awesome. We were enclosed in a glassed area between the crocodile and the passengers. There was room to see the crocodile jump out of the water and catch the piece of meat being lowered by a rod from a person standing on the top deck of the boat. Right in front of our eyes the size of a crocodile leaping out from the water was unbelievable.

Next day we were on our tour to Kakadu National Park. Aussie Adventure Holidays were our transport and our tour guide was the most delightful person you could ever meet. He was a real Crocodile Dundee. It was the wet season, which meant some of the areas normally visited by the tourist in the dry, could not be accessed in the wet. It did not matter only being there to see the amount of water covering the land. It was in flood and that happens every year while the monsoon season is on.

We turned off the Stuart Highway and travelled along the Arnhem Highway crossing Adelaide River, the same river we visited the day before to see the jumping crocodile. Water crossed the road up to 400 millimetres in depth. If the water rose another 100 millimetres the road would have been closed to traffic.

We entered Kakadu National Park and stopped for lunch at World Heritage Area of Ubirr Rock. It was raining heavily. After lunch we walked to the ancient Aboriginal rock art galleries to a lookout at the wetlands.

Next stop was Bowall Centre. This was very informative and interesting and displayed the aboriginal culture and the way they lived and survived. Gwen and I sat in one of the wooden chairs they make from the local wood in the area. They are comfortable and unique.

It was then off to Cooinda to join Kakadu’s fabled Yellow Waters Wetland Cruise. This was a cruise we would never forget. Yellow Waters Wetland was in flood therefore; the water was almost as high as the tops of the trees. It was unbelievable. I’d never seen anything like it in my life before. This is a crocodile trap.

The tour guide drove the cruise boat amongst the tree she stopped often to show us an eagle’s nest and other fascinating things. At one point she showed us a Jesus bird and two young chicks. They have long feet and this allowed them to walk on water and that’s how they were named Jesus bird.

That night we stayed at Cooinda. Our evening meal was barramundi and it was so fresh and tasty that you would have sworn the chef walked out the back door, threw a line into the river and caught it.

It was then off to the township of Jabiru where we visited the uranium mine and the town.

Eventually we started on our return to Darwin after an exciting time discovering Kakadu National Park and experiencing such a wonderful place to visit and enjoy.

This was the final leg of our trip. I must say it was a little hectic at times but to squash in the distance we travelled and the enjoyment of seeing so many different things during that time – it was worth it.