Trip to Australia
Monday, February 7th, 2011TRIP TO AUSTRALIA
Colleen and I had planned a six week trip to Australia and New Zealand before returning to the US for Christmas with our families. We left Kuala Lumpur October 26th and flew to Sydney, arriving the morning of the 27th. We were met by our friend, Lisa Cartwright, a teacher whom we had worked with in Prague. It was a beautiful day, blue sky ans sunshine, just a little bit nippy. We took the scenic route and stopped on a headland overlooking the Pacific.
Lisa lives in a very nice apartment which she shares with Eva, a Czech girl in Sydney to improve her English. After a brief nap, we headed downtown by bus. It was Saturday and people were strolling through the parks. We joined them. Evidently it was a good time for weddings as we saw at least five brides having their pictures made. We also saw Sydney Harbor, the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. We also saw fruit bats, big hairy creatures with at least a two foot wingspan, hanging upside down in the trees. We had dinner in a nice but pricey restaurant on Darling Harbor. (Everything seemed pricey after Malaysia). There were several loud bachelorette parties in the restaurant which almost prevented us from being able to talk. We crashed early that night.
Lisa lies in Randwick, a very nice neighborhood in Sydney with cute restaurants, small markets, bookstores and a cinema, everything you would need. She and Eva speak English one day and Czech the next, a good deal for both of them.
The next day, we headed to the Blue Mountains just to the east of Sydney. The area reminded me of Gatlinburg in Tennessee, small towns nestled in the mountains with cute but expensive shops that cater to tourists. We went first to an overlook to see The Three Sisters, a rock formation of three pillars complete with a legend to explain their existence. We went to several spots that offered spectacular views from the edge of the cliffs the hiked down into the valley below. Everything was green and we saw lots of beautiful birds. After several hours hiking, we rode the cable car back up. That night, Lisa made us a wonderful supper.
On Monday, after a leisurely stroll around Randwick, we headed to Manley Beach which required a ferry ride across Sydney Harbor that offered great views of the Opera House. Manley is a broad beach, like most around Sydney, and has cliffs on each end. Lots of surfers were testing their skills on the breakers rolling in from the Pacific. We found a somewhat secluded spot on one end of the beach protected from the surf. The water was clear and I went in, but only briefly, a little too chilly for me.
The next day we strolled around Randwick again, bought some books by Australian authors and went to see “Michael Clayton” at the Cinema (Colleen likes George Clooney). Then we walked down the hill to Coogee Beach, another nice beach with cliffs, surf and surfers.
Sydney is a beautiful, modern city with many interesting neighborhoods. I particularly liked Randwick and felt I would be happy living there. It had everything one would need and was only a short bus ride to the city center. But it seems that all large cities are somewhat similar and the size masks the day to day life of the people. I longed to see and feel the native culture outside the large metropolis. So we headed for the “Red Center”.
We left Lisa’s at 7:30 in the morning for a long flight to Alice Springs in the middle of the country and, on arrival, had to change our watches by two and one half hours. Never understood the half hour time change within a country. We stayed at Annie’s Place, a backpacker’s haven which is modest but nice. The staff was very friendly and helpful, explaining where we could keep food and giving us a map of the town and pointing out the highlights. Alice, as the natives call it, isn’t very big so there aren’t many highlights. We got our things in our room (toilet and shower down the hall) and headed fro town. Had lunch of fish and chips which were great. They had something in the batter that really added to the taste. Wish we had something similar in the US. Captain D’s just doesn’t measure up.
Saw our first Aborigines. They are very dark people and have all the features that we Westerners find unattractive according to our standards of beauty. They are very dark, almost black. Think of the blackest African American and all the Aborigines are this color. Very dark, big lips, wide noses, fat faces, puffy cheeks and generally overweight. And I immediately got the feeling that they were more tolerated than accepted. I didn’t see any who seemed happy, laughing and smiling. Nor any who were engaged in conversation with the “white people” unless they were trying to sell their art. And there was a lot of Aboriginal art. It seemed to be their principal means of income. I don’t remember seeing any of the Aboriginals working in the shops. They seemed to be a group apart. We looked for souvenirs, mainly Aboriginal art that consisted of simple designs or drawings of animals. The art consisted of outlines with lots of dots and was rather expensive.
We bought some bread and peanut butter (a staple in my life) and put it in the kitchen at Annie’s. At a backpackers place, they usually provide space in the kitchen so you can make your own meals and not have to eat in restaurants. Normally, there is silverware, dishes, a fridge, and a stove or microwave. They just ask that you label your food and there’s an unwritten rule that you don’t eat what doesn’t belong to you. And of could you wash and put away the dishes.
The next morning, we were up at 5AM to begin a three day trip to Uluru (Ayer’s Rock), Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) an King’s Canyon. After a breakfast of peanut butter sandwiches and coffee, we put our excess luggage in a locked room with a whole lot of other backpacks. Annie’s is equipped to handle people who are going to Ayer’s Rock, the main tourist destination from Alice. We left at 6AM, 18 of us in a van pulling a trailer. BJ, our guide, (or Beej as we called him), 5 Canadians, 4 Brits, 2Irish, 2 Americans, 1 German, 1 Swiss, 1 Finnish and 1 Israeli, an international group.
It rained intermittently and there were spots where we had to go slowly because water was flowing over the road and we weren’t sure how deep it was. Though Alice is the jumping off spot for a trip to Uluru, it’s not close. It’s a day trip just to get there. We stopped every couple of hours for potty breaks. The first was at a camel farm. We could ride a camel for about a 100 yards for only five bucks. I passed. Camels were used to haul equipment to the Red Center before the railroads were completed. When they were no longer needed, they were released into the wild and now there are herds of wild camels roaming the arid area.
We picked up a couple of guys who had gotten their truck stuck on an unpaved road. It seems there is an unwritten rule that you help anyone in distress in the Outback. We dropped them off at a Ranger Station. There was one spot where we had to be very careful because of the water flowing over the road. 300 meters later we crossed a $6 million bridge over the Finke River that was dry as a bone. (More about that later). Our destination the first day was King’s Canyon but, it turned out, we couldn’t get there. The road was closed due to flooding. We went back to the Ranger Station to see if the water would recede but it didn’t. BJ took us to another spot for a hike, interesting but not spectacular. As we left the canyon in the van, it began to rain and then to hail. We had to stop because we couldn’t see the road.
Our next stop was Curtin Springs near Mount Connor, a large mesa which several in our group thought was “The Rock” but we were still a long way from our destination. It was our last chance to get alcohol so we stocked up. Met “Pete”, a crusty old gent who owned 1,000,000 acres of the Red Center including Curtin Springs. He had had a few beers and was very talkative. He told some slightly off color jokes about the Aborigines and made no bones about his dislike for them. He called them Blacks. He was happy to see the rain and said it was the first rain they had had since March. Guess he was celebrating with a few too many beers. Told me that he had come to that area with his wife and son fifty years ago and in the first year had only seen 6 white people. I didn’t ask how he had accumulated a million acres but BJ told me that in the old days you just had to show up and claim the land. Squatter’s rights.
We slept on Pete’s property that night. Bj told us that only Mulga Tours (the tour group that worked out of Annie’s Place) was allowed to stay on his property because they kept the place clean so we were very careful to clean up after ourselves. We cooked on burners and gathered firewood to build a fire and keep warm. It was colder than I had expected. Occasional light rains didn’t keep us from enjoying a good meal. We slept on the ground under shelter in sleeping bags inside swags. A swag is just a large canvas bag that is waterproof. We slept well.
Early the next morning, we drove into the park, a large area that includes Uluru and Kata Tjuta. We went first to the Olgas for a long hike. The Olgas are a series of rock formations, some higher than Uluru. They are composed of composite rock, rocks of various sizes and dirt that have been fused together by tremendous heat, like concrete when you can still see the rocks. Supposedly they were pushed away from ancient mountains that were higher than the Himalayas. They look like donuts that have been cut in half and balanced on their flat ends forming large, solid arches. There are 36 of them. Kata Tjuta means “many heads” in Aborigine and the area is considered sacred to the natives. We hiked for a couple of hours around and through. Intermittent showers created running water where it would normally have been dry. The surrounding area is flat and dry, a big country.
After a lunch of sandwiches, which we made ourselves (all our food was carried in the trailer), we headed to Uluru, about 25 kilometers away but it looked much closer. We arrived at the Cultural Center just in time for a torrential rainstorm, most unusual for the Red Center. We had coffee and visited the exhibits. The park has been co-managed by the Aborigines for several years now and there were Aborigines working in the Center, the first time I had seen the natives working alongside whites. Uluru, a single rock, not composite, is enormous. It takes over two hours to walk around it. It is a religious site for the Aborigines and they urge you NOT to climb on the rock just as we would not want people scaling one of our churches. But you can climb the rock. There is a certain area where you can go up and there is a rope to hang onto when you begin the initial steep ascent. Beej told us that the majority of tourists to Uluru are Japanese and they charter planes and come for the expressed purpose of climbing the Rock. The Aborigines may not appreciate it but they are practical. Money talks.
As soon as the rain abated I went outside to get pictures of the Rock. The rain created small rivers running down the side of the Rock and we got pictures most people miss. When it is wet, Uluru is a beautiful, soft mauve color as opposed to the brilliant shades or red and orange you usually see. Beej took us to a spot to see a spectacular waterfall cascading down in stages from the top of the Rock into a wide pool. He told us that the previous week, the pool had been completely dry. We headed to another spot and, just as we arrived, it began to rain again. I stayed in the van but those who went said the waterfall was spectacular but they were soaking wet. I wished I had gone.
Let me point out that there were signs everywhere warning us that the temperature was often as high as 40 degrees Centigrade (over 100 Fahrenheit) and we should drink lots of water. Unfortunately, when we were there, it was closer to 40 degrees F. I wore a jacket most of the time, especially at night. It stopped raining so we waited to see the changing colors of the Rock at sunset. It didn’t happen. Cloud cover prevented us getting pictures of the sunset. The sky became very threatening and we got reports that the “Mother of all Storms” was on the way so we abandoned our plans to sleep under the stars and sought shelter. We got rain but not bad and I was dry in my swag.
We got up early the next morning and drove to the Rock in order to see the sunrise, but, like the sunset, the cloud cover prevented any spectacular pictures. We enjoyed a hearty breakfast and then began a hike all the way around Uluru. It’s either a 6 mile or a 6 kilometer trek (I don’t remember which) and it took about two and a half hours. There were signs everywhere urging us to drink plenty of water due to the high temperatures but, at the beginning, we it was cold and windy and I needed a warm jacket. It was easy walking as the land is completely flat.
The Aborigines consider the entire rock to be sacred but there are spots along the way where they have signs posted indicating that this particular area is especially sacred to men (or to women) and they ask that you not take pictures. Supposedly, the Aborigines use these site for special ceremonies.
Uluru seems to be one solid rocr as opposed to the composite material of Kata Tjula. Some pieces had broken away and were separate and other pieces seemed ready to separate. Aerial photos in the center had shown that the “layers” or “striations” were almost vertical rather than horizontal as we see in the Grand Canyon. It’s as if layers of earth were pressed together under extreme temperature and pressure so that they fused together into one solid rock pushed up on it’s side. The land around the Rock is reminiscent of that around the Grand Canyon, flat, dry and hot. The flora looks very similar but it’s probably not the same. It’s a big country and the Red Center really is red.
Beej told us that the Aborigines are very secretive about their religious ceremonies and supposedly will not reveal anything about them to anyone who is not Aborigine. This secretiveness may carry over into their daily lives and may be part of the reason they are not assimilated into the white culture. Like so many native minorities, they have been mistreated by the European conquers. At one time young Aborigines were taken away from their families in order to be taught in “European” schools and brought up the “right way”. Another reason the Aborigines may resist European culture. The Australian government has recently apologized for this treatment. Aborigines are taught from a very young age how to live off the land, how to find food and water. At the age of 11 or 13, boys are sent into the desert alone to survive for a period of time.(Can’t remember how long but remember thinking that I would not have survived for that period of time). It’s a right of passage and every Aborigine boy does it. They go into the desert as boys and return as men.
We left Uluru at 11AM and stopped at Pete’s place in Curtin Springs for lunch. At the next rest stop, we heard that the road to Alice might be closed due to flooding so we hurried on. The river was rising and the people at Kings Canyon Resort had been stranded there for four days. When we got to the Finke River, which had been dry before, water was surging under the bridge and chewing up chunks of land from the banks along the way. Even Beej wanted to stop and get pictures of something seldom seen in this area. Areas of the road that had been flooded before were now dry. Obviously, the river drained a larger area and had taken more time to fill up.
WE stopped at the camel farm. A woman was carrying a young kangaroo in a white bag about the size of a pillowcase. She took him out to pee and he was quite anxious to get back inside the bag. She told us that “joeys” stay mostly inside their mothers pouch until they are about nine months old. She explained that Kangaroos are nocturnal and many are killed on the highways and joeys are often found still alive in the pouch.
Back in Alice, we were treated to dinner at Annie’s place. Good food, good fun. Lots of drinking, lots of dancing.
The next day, Sunday, Nov. 4, was a slow day. We had no plans. We strolled around the Sunday Market in the open-air pedestrian area. Typical stuff. Nothing worthwhile except Aboriginal art which is very expensive. $70 for a 12 by 15 inch piece of art on a canvas like piece of material and unframed. The larger works were much more expensive. Many of the artists were selling their own work but, thank goodness, they didn’t harass anyone, only answered questions or showed their work if you showed interest. Spent a lot of time on the net Making arrangements for the rest of the trip.
Alice is a small town and there’s not much to do there except to look around and learn a little about the Aborigines. They were there but thy seemed a race apart. There seemed to be a wide separation between the Australians and the Aborigines. The aborigines weren’t working in the shops, only selling their own art on the street. There seems to have been no assimilation of the natives into the European culture.
We went to town again on Monday and bought gifts. Got beach bags with Aboriginal designs for my granddaughters. The trick was to find something I thought they might like that wasn’t too bulky. Getting things home was going to be a problem. In the afternoon, we flew to Cairns (pronounced Caaan with an Ozzie accent).
Our hostel, Calypso, sent a van to pick us up at the airport. It’s a very organized operation and I would recommend them. They were very efficient in getting us checked in and into the room. A little later, they set us up for a snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef the next day. It was a hell of a lot more expensive than I had expected.
Calypso is essentially a backpackers haven. They know ti and they are prepared for it. They handled lots of young people with huge backpacks. Had dinner in the dining room/bar, a huge open area with 5 TVs, all on different channels with th sound turned off, loud music blaring, a billiard competition with a running commentary by some guy on a mike. Luckily they didn’t keep us awake later.
Tuesday morning, we left at 7AM to go to the Reef. Another well run operation. They picked people up from all over town and took them to the boat. We had both divers and snorkelers. They split us up and gave us instructions on what to do – very complete and thorough. The boat was state of the art, TVs showing underwater shots, no shoes on board, and all the necessary equipment. It took us a couple of hours to get to the spot they had selected. We were fairly isolated though we saw other boats in the distance.
They gave us shorty wet suits, mask, snorkel and fins. The divers went in first and then the snorkelers. We were shown an area to stay within and a guy stood on top of the boat keeping an eye on us. We were on Miln’s Reef about 11 miles out. The water was relatively shallow. In some areas I was barely ably to stay off the reef. The divers looked like they were in about thirty feet of water.
The snorkeling was great but no better that Bali or the Perhentian Islands actually.
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