Troy Archie – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Well here I am in hot ass Alice Springs which is also known as the “Red Center” and when I say hot I mean hot; it’s averaging about 40 degrees everyday. I thought Broome was pretty rough at first because it was so humid but I got used to it rather quick and I must say I rather liked it. The weather was very tropical and it was a really comfortable hostel where I really enjoyed just laying back and listening to the rain, reading and chilling out. The rain cooled things down a bit but of course it posed a huge problem when you wanted to go out and do something. There was also tons of lizzards and frogs in Broome; the frogs croaked like ducks and the lizzards were everywhere, the kitchen, bathrooms, along the walls…I enjoyed my stay in Broome, with plenty of good games time spent just hanging out and bullshitting with people and of “Go Fish” with the gang.

Another thing about Broome that I noticed was there was a lot of Aboriginals, actually there’s lots of Aboriginals everywhere here but in Broome they seemed to be a lot less segregate from the white community as they are here in Alice. In Broome there were lots of them at the bars, going out clubbing and caring on with there buisness like anyone else. Here in Alice, they weren’t aloud into any of the bars and there are a lot more on the street making a lot of noise.

Now my west coast section of Australia is over though and it’s been a blast. It feels odd, almost like something is ending but at the same time I know something new is begining, I just have no idea what it is. I had only planned to travel as far as Broome and from there it’s been pretty much a shotgun approach.

I feel a bit dissapointed about the west coast in one way that since it was the off season there wasn’t a lot going on and a lot of the places where pretty quiet but at the same time I know when I start getting into bussier places with more people I’m going to have a lot more contempt for it all and look back at my time out west with fondness of how laid back it was and how quite it was. To top it off I met lots of great people all up the coast and my last leg of it spent it with some really cool people. I can’t decided if either Coral Bay at Christmas or my stay at the West’s fish farm was the high point for me. My high point at the West’s farm went something like this: Albert and I had both just spent the day working pretty hard, digging a trench for the water pipe and filling it back in, moving a bunch of stuff around the farm and then finished the day with a pretty decent fish harvest. We came back to the house with some fresh fish that we just harvested and he cooked them up for us. We here eating away, me sitting to the left of him and him at his place at the end of the family table, when he stopped eating, turned to me and said, “We got a lot done today, huh?” I stopped eating, looked over at him and said, “Yeah, yeah we did.” and we both went back to eating. It sounds stupid, it sounds simple and probably a little odd but in that simple little exchange of words what was exchanged was respect.

Anyways, here I am in Alice Springs and it’s hot. The temperature is averaging 40 degrees everyday in the shade but it’s not as bad as it sounds. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hot and while just sitting around your sweating but it’s not to the point where you just can’t handle it anymore and you’re going to snap. I guess I’m aclimatized to it to a bit, which is interesting because in the last week or so I’ve gone to some pretty extremes. In Coral Bay it was amazing weather, holding out at about 32 with a nice sea breeze and the odd cloud in the sky. From there I went on a 18 hour bus right and got out about 1400km north in Broome where the humidity hit you like a brick wall. After a couple days of that I jumped on a plane and got out here in Alice Springs where there’s no humidity at all but it’s a good 10 degrees hotter out.

The River Through Alice.

How they manage to get such green grass is beyond me.

Alice Spings; One hot little town.

I have been travelling with people that I had met in Coral Bay for about week and a half now and we just all finally went our own ways. We were all heading out on our own tours of Uluru and from there going or seperate directions so we had a final night out together on New Years. As I had mentioned in my previous post, I landed into Alice on no sleep but from there I couldn’t fall asleep. I figure I was away for about 38 hours with about a hour nap on the plane somewhere in the middle. Fun Stuff.

For our last night together we just went down to local pub, chilled out, joked around as usual and just simple enjoyed each others company. I had only been travelling with these people for about a week an a half but I felt rather close to them in the short period, I don’t know if it was because we spent Christmas together or something like that but I had a great time with them all. From here Tom is heading off to Brisbane, Simona & Corin are off to Tasmania, Steve is off to Cairnes and I’m heading south to Adelaide. First off though, Uluru (Ayers Rock).

Yep, the big rock that everyone has to see.

To be honest with you, I wasn’t too excited to see Uluru, I was even planning on skipping it but felt that I should see it just for the sake of seeing it. It is just a big rock and one thing we joke about is that there’s lots of rocks in this country that everyone seems to flock to and takes pictures off; regardless I felt I had to see it.

Not wanting to go on one of the mulit-day “Adventure Tours” that cost an arm and a leg, Steve and I decided to chip in together, get a rental car and drive out there. We had gotten word from one of the girls at the hostel we were at that there were some people out there with a farm who let people just park and camp over night there. We figured it all sounded good, got the car and headed out. We were out late again the night before for our last night with Tom and the girls so again, we didn’t get a whole lot of sleep for the day.

Mt. Connor another big rock but this one no one goes to.

We got out to Uluru about 4 in the afternoon and took a look around at the “Cultural Center” that they have there. To enter it costs $25 per person, now I know a lot of people get upset about having to pay for National Parks and such but I see it as an upkeep fee and really have no complaints in coughing up the cash so long as I get something decent in return. Well unfortunately, that was not the case here and I walked away from the Cultural Center and facilities dissapointed and digusted. The center that they had there was a joke, it had absoultely no reference on how Uluru was formed, how old it is and any bit of it’s geological significance. Instead it had the Aboriginals version of how it was formed and what it’s significants it is to them. All of that is rather interesting and just as important as the geological history of it but the way it was delivered was awful. I think it was suppose to writen from the perspective of the Aboriginals but if you took all the text they had there, wrote it down in crayon on construction paper you’d automatically assume it was writen by a child. The way the story of the rock was told and the grammer used was a joke and I honestly walked away thinking that the Aboriginals are some simple child like people, which I know they are not.

What I found really dissapointing about the Cultural Center is that pretty much all around Uluru it’s basically Saskatchewan but with no farms. It’s extremely flat and goes on for miles and miles and miles and miles. How did Uluru get there? What is it made of? How old is it? These things weren’t answered at all and now I have to go online and figure it out myself.

After the crappy Cultural Center Steve and I went out walking around Uluru as is what you’re suppose to do when you’re there I suppose. It was pretty cool; there was some neat ancient Aboriginal art on the sides of it at one spot and some interesting little spots here and there. After a short hike we went for the sunset which was a fair bit of a disappointment as it was clowdy out but it still changed a bit.

Now somewhat of a popular thing to do is climb Uluru but the thing with that is that is it’s considered a sacred sight to the Aboriginals and they don’t like you climbing it so it comes down to a moral question. Some people do, others don’t. I personally didn’t get the chance to climb it; if the temperture is forcasted to be over a certain point (I think it was 36) they don’t let anyone climb it after 11 am. If I had the chance I think I would have given it a go. Hate to disrespect the Aboriginals but from what I’ve seen I really don’t hold them in a very high regard.

After that we went to go and try to find this mythical free camp ground that was somewhere out in the country but couldn’t find it so we just ended up staying at the camp ground at the resort and slept in the car, again for the third night in a row having a terrible sleep. Even at night time it scorching hot out here but the worst thing is is that there’s lots and lots of bugs case in point:

Now this isn’t from Uluru but from the Hostel we stayed at the night before which was pure shit. They’re not bed bugs but mosquito bites or at least thats what I was Jo, the owner/operator of the current hostel I’m at said, I think they were ants though as I noticed some on my bed during the day. At first they didn’t itch that much but as time has worn on they’ve gotten itchy as hell. Regardless of all the bites I still have a dead sexy back though.

I should have known better because when I first got to the hostel there was a girl with similar bites all over her legs and the guy at the counter just kind of laughed and shrugged his shoulders, what an asshole. I should have ran then and there. Shit like this isn’t suppose to happen to me while on vacation, it’s suppose to happen to Mike (haha, love ya man). The hostel I got this from was called “Annie’s: The Friendly Backpackers”. It was such a dive. It had in-suit bathrooms but the door had no lock on it so if you were taking a dump or having a shower there was a good chance the door was going to swing open on you. There was also no glass on one of the windows so I’m sure that didn’t help keep the bugs out. The kitchen was so incredibly dank, with barely any pots, pans, dishes and cutlery and to top it off they didn’t have cups. They had signs saying people kept stealing them so they didn’t give them out anymore but instead sold them, I later found out that they keep such a shitty kitchen and sell the cups so people go to there bar for meals and drinks. I also noticed that the fridges were barely on which I’m sure was thought out to let food go old and you have to go and buy food and drinks from them. As you might be able to tell I’m really pissed off at this place and am going to post a couple reviews on backpacker sites.

I changed hostels to a place called Alice’s Backpackers Resort which is one of the best backpackers I’ve been to thus far. The guy running the show, Jo is a great guy, is super accommodating and runs a tight ship. I think the main way that I rate a hostel is the kitchen area, again thinking with my stomach and just the little things that you don’t normally notice and quite often take for granted. Speaking of thinking with my stomach, I found this amazing ground kangaroo mince for super cheap at the grocery stores so I’m stepping up a bit.

Kangaroo tail…looks interesting but I’ve yet to try it.

After a terrible sleep in the car we were up at 4:30 to go see the sunrise on Uluru but this time from a different location which was near Kata Tjuta National Park and the Olgas. It was a bit of a dissapointing sunrise over Uluru as there was a slight haze but the Olgas looked great and the sunrise itself was pretty dam nice. I left my camera in the car so no pictures for that but I don’t care, it’s all in my head.

From there we went to go and climb the Olgas. Now the Olgas are another big ass rock in the middle of nowhere about 45 minutes from Uluru. Now I thought these rocks were a lot more interesting than Uluru. We had a great hike through them seeing a lot of really cool rock formations and nature. Now this place was worth $25 but unfortunately they didn’t have anything written up about them at the Cultural Center or even at the Olgas so I get to look up on the internet now and see for myself how it was all formed.

The Olgas

From there we headed back to town. I wanted to check out King’s Canyon which is just north of there but we didn’t have enough gas. We had enough to make it to the next roadhouse but from there we’d have to double back another 75km plus we were beat to shit after the last couple days. We also needed to get back to town because the next day Steve had to do a rental car relocation to Cairnes and had to head out pretty early. I slept a good distance on the way back to Alice Springs and slept good that night, save the odd scratching season. We booked into a different hostel for the second night and it’s 1000 times better and I’ll most likely be staying there for a couple days as I’m still trying to figure out how to get to Adelaide. I met this Swedish guy at the hostel who’s been on a sheep farm for 3 months up until the other day. He’s a big hockey fan so he and I were pretty excited to talk hockey with someone. In fact as I type this I get to listen to the Oiler’s play the BlackHawks so hooray for me.

I got to do some driving with the rental car on the left hand side which was pretty cool. I only found myself on the wrong side of the road once or twice but kept on turning on the windshield wipers instead of signalling but there was no accidents so all is good.

Steve and I just parted ways with him heading off to Carines so I’m on my own now for the first in a bit. I really enjoyed travelling with Steve and will miss the guy. Again, a person I only knew for a couple days but felt I really hit it off and bonded with the guy. As much as I loved travelling with everyone I had met I’m looking forwards to this next little bit of alone time and know that in a couple days I’ll be probably find another group of people to travel with. In Adelaide I hope to hook up with someone with a car and travel with them for a while.

Me and Steve with Jo in the back.

Here are the rest of the pics for Uluru, the Olgas and Alice Springs.

Safe Travels

Troy

Tags: Australia

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