Louise is a question master and loves to ask me lot's of questions about things I don't know. At school I deal with this pretty well and manage to get through the odd tricky question. Lou however has cottoned on that most of the time I make my answers up and calls me up on this. I can't distract her like a 10year old so I have now learnt to say 'I dunno.' We are now thinking of keeping a book of questions so we can bombard someone wiser than us with our travel queries when we return. Google perhaps?
We boarded our new bus and sighed a giant sigh when we realised Shelley was no longer our tour guide wooo! However when a 40 something year old guy introduces himself as 'Squatter' alarm bells should start to ring. Was he a gym enthusiast? Didn't like to stand or sit? Nope he just had a weird name - apparently its the Australian way. As we headed out of Melbourne towards Wilson's Promontory National Park (the most southerly point in mainland Australia did you know!) we soon realised Squatters flaw (apart from his name that is) He loved to talk, he loved to talk when everyone wanted to sleep, he loved to talk when there was nothing to say. Some may even say he loved to talk more than life. At this point we were very grateful for Lou's ipod thingy as we had it on loud to drown him out. Now thinking about it he probably could of answered some of our questions. Oh well.
Along the way we stopped at the side of the road. Alright to wear flip flops? Yeah corse! So off we trundled. Me and Lou were the last in the group and were wondering what we were going to see. Everyone was clustered around this upturned tyre. We squirmed in and saw this spider. It was a red back - 2nd deadliest spider in Australia. We had exposed toes. EEK! Photos were taken and we moved away from the killer creature. As we looked around we realised we had been joined by loads of wild kangaroos. Now I have learnt that I don't really like animals I don't know. Yet for some reason though me and lou thought we were David Attenborough (animal guy yes?) and did our best to get as close to the kangaroos as possible. Whilst we were engrossed in our own animal documentary making we didn't realise the rest of the group had moved away to seek out some emu's. At this point Lou thought it was a good idea to remind us both about the killer spiders lurking and our exposed toes... we got out of the bushes quick and waited for the rest of the group whilst hopping up and down to stop the spiders eating us alive (not actually sure if this is factually correct about the way they kill or a proven method of survival.) Back on the bus it was for us and alot of driving. Quite night and bed.
The next day we were up early and driving into the mountains along a pass called Barry Way* and across the Snowy River, which was a river but not snowy. We saw the aftermath of a bush fire from a couple of years back and were told a gruesome story about how they picked water up from the sea and dumped it on the fires. Though at this particular point they had picked up a scuba diver as well and dumped him on the fire too. After being told that we were back in the bus and headed further into the mountains. We arrived at the base of Mount Kosciusko the highest mountain in mainland Australia. We were going to climb it. The first part of the climb is a little bit of a cheat as you get a ski lift up. This was my first time on a ski lift and didn't I make everyone know it. I waved at people, took photos and used the word wow alot. At least this is all out of my system now. Once we were off the lift we started to walk. Lou and I were wearing shorts and vest tops with Santa hats. People coming down the mountain were wearing fancy walking clothes which said things like 'wind proof 200x' or something along those lines. We were not fazed and trundled along to the first look out point. Oh did I forget to mentioned there was snow everywhere! In their summer! Apparently it has never been like that before - weren't we lucky! At our first look out point we looked down at what we had climbed and were proud of ourselves. We then were told the ski lift closes at half 4 so we had 2 hours to get to the top and back down again. Squatter advised us to 'just make it to the next lookout point.' This of corse made Lou and I and some others in the group determined to make it to the top. There was no point coming all this way and then coming home to say: Oh yeah the tallest mountain in Australia, yeah I made it to the lookout point. Nope we wanted to go to the top.
*There is no evidence that this road was named after our very own Barry Taylor, though on the other hand there is no evidence to suggest against this...
Onwards and upwards we climbed. We got to the last point before the top and saw the path veer one way and a steep climb the other side. Squatter told me and lou that if we wanted to make it to the top we had to go the most direct way (the others were ahead of us at this point on the path) - which was of corse up the steep hill covered in icy snow. So we clambered up and made it to the top. Photos were taken - mission completed. We were on top of the world...kinda. All now that faced us was a race with time to make it back to the ski lift before it closed. Cue Benny Hill esk music as we 'ran' along the flat parts and climbed down the sloping bits (we learnt this was the best method as Hannah, our fellow mountain walker, slipped and cut her hand and arm up- ouch.) We were pleased to say we made it back to the lift in time, where I managed to get told off by the guy for getting on in the wrong manner. We were proud of ourselves that we had reached the top and back down again in the given time and rewarded ourselves with a jacuzzi at our accommodation. That night we were introduced to the 'ski shot' where shots are placed in an old ski and you line up in 4's to drink them. It would of been rude to not embrace the Australian culture so we reluctantly joined in!
Our muscles ached. Muslces that probably don't even exist ached. Luckily we had another long journey to the purpose made capital Canberra.Oh wasn't that a joy to see. No offence but they basically 'stole' parts of European capitals (I've seen loads- London, Paris...erm) and mashed them together to make their own. We visited houses of parliament which was kinda interesting for my inner geek, and went to a museum which no one was really in the mood for. Oh and we drove past their prime ministers house, that was fun ish. Overall not really impressed with the capital. By this time it was the 23rd December and everyone just wanted to get to Sydney for some Christmas spirit. We were rewarded after a loooong drive and checked into our base accommodation in Sydney. 10 bed dorm for the next 10 nights. Excited about the festive holiday adventures that awaited us!
As you probably know by now I'm coming home on Wednesday and really want this blog up to date as Lou promises she is going to keep updating with her own solo adventures once I'm back home.
Much love to you all
Steph and Lou x x x x
p.s. Ooo and this travelling lark is educating us. Watching 'The Chase' on tv last night and we answered questions about Singapore tourist attractions and Australian prime ministers! yeah!
Sunday 20 February 2011
Wednesday 16 February 2011
I'm on a bus to Melbourne yeah
Walking into McDonald's and asking them if they serve burgers has not been one of my finest moments, yet it lives as a reminder of a brilliant night out don't you think? I should start at the beginning: Our Adelaide 'morning after' did not start well with my creeping out early (11am ish) and Lou 'finding' my empty bed. Apparently she had to go on a massive search for me, which consisted of the Internet cafe and then finding me in the hairdressers - Super detective Lou! Having my hair chopped off delighted the hairdresser, but I did feel a little bad for her when Lou 'found' me and was like 'OH MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!' I don't think that is the usual response to a haircut but least it was followed up with compliments! After the haircut was the MacDonald's incident (less said about that the better) and the day was meant to be spent on the beach, however it was really cold (about 22!) and we were really hungover so we pretty much spent the whole day in bed :)
Our alarm was set for an early start the next morning as we were hopping onto another bus heading to Sydney. As mentioned before Lou is in charge of the time/phone/alarm and always asks me what time we should wake up. Guaranteed I will say a time and she will set it 15mins earlier so we can have a 'lie in'. Our catch the bus day was no different. The only downside to this plan was that Lou presumed (silly billy) that I read the pick up time correctly. Checking things like this whilst in the cab and being 20 minutes late is not fun. For some reason I was sure we were meeting at 6.50, yet the darn little piece of paper said 6.30 - big oops on my part. After frantically calling the bus company and being told 'the bus will wait for no-one' we headed straight to the head office to meet it there. Luckily for us (well mainly me as I had messed up) the bus was running late too. Lesson for the day: I say the pick up time and then Lou checks it.
Being the last on the bus we had the back seat which was the worst as we couldn't hear anything our tour guide Shelley said (we later realised that this was a blessing as she got over excited whenever she saw any type of animal and would scream the animal name whilst slamming on the breaks!) Anyways some familiar faces in the form of Natalie, Marcel, Adrian and Fernando from our other tours faced us on the bus which was cool and we soon settled into the journey. So our journey to Melbourne had began. We started off by heading into the Grampians, a mountain range, and our first walk. We got all geared up for our walk but then the heavens opened and a few of us decided that it was too cold and rainy to climb the mountain so we sat and waited in the bus for hours. At this point our British nature had escaped us. And weren't we glad about it when the others arrived back on the bus soaked through and teeth trembling. That night after everyone had dried off and warmed up we had Lou's favourite spag bol and an early ish night. An eventful day of mishaps!
Our Great Ocean Road trip began with a clear blue skies...behind the clouds that lurked. It was cold. Many of us felt cheated by the cold weather as somewhere in a travel brochure in our rooms back home it said that December was the start of summer. Well sorry Australia you promised sunshine so it was only fair that it had to put up with the same winter outfits for 3days in a row. My look consisted of leggings and a hoodie and Lou embraced the jean hoodie combo. Along the Great Ocean road we stopped and saw many of it's famous sites such as London Bridge (looks like a bridge) Mackenzie Waterfalls (alot of steps were climbed today) and the 12 Apostles (they lie, there are only 8 now.) We did great impressions of tourists, jumping out of the bus, whipping our jumpers off (if we were brave), taking photos with Natalie's amazing camera that made it look hot and then jumping back on the bus again! That night we headed back out to the 12 Apostles for sunset which was amazing as the sun and clouds worked together to give us some great Kodak moments. At this point Australia was forgiven for it's coldness and simply admired.
The next day we were back on the road and Melbourne bound. Along the way we stopped off at Kennett River for some wild Koala spotting. We were rewarded with baby Koalas hiding in the trees with their mums. Shelley also gave us some bird feed for the brightly coloured birds that hung out in the same trees. Yes I now may seem stupid but whilst gazing up at the Koalas thinking they had it pretty good (love the idea of all that sleep) I kinda forgot I had two handfuls of bird seed in my hand. I was rudely reminded when a bird swooped down and attacked me. Later it was mentioned that the bird simply landed on me. But at the time I felt under attack! Soon the whole group had birds all over them and many photos were snapped. Lou even had one land on her head which she loved until I pointed out it might think her head was a toilet! After the walking in the shoes of Dr Doolittle for a while we were back on the bus for the long stretch towards Melbourne.
We arrived in Melbourne and checked into our hostel and settled for an early ish night as surprise surprise we had an early morning wake up. That night was possibly one of the worst nights sleep we both had. The guys in our room were out partying and seemed to lost the ability to move around quietly when they returned. They also seemed to forgot to close the door whilst using the bathroom. And at one point the guy above Lou was coughing so much he sounded like he was going to be sick onto Lou's bag on the floor below - nice! She also had the squeakiest bed ever. On one of his many trips to the bathroom the guy above lou (we shall call him GAL now) obviously left his bed empty. However upon returning to it he realised someone else had climbed into it. GAL was not impressed and started to kick up a fuss. The guy sleeping by the door (DG) took charge and turned the light on. After a quick head count we realised there were 9 people in a 8 bed dorm. A drunken guy had somehow got into our room and commandeered GAL's bed. DG did a fine job of shepherding him out and we all finally got to bed. It was 4am. Our alarm went off at 5am. We woke. We weren't quite. We didn't care. Since this night we have been asked 'what did you think of Melbourne?' To be fair we didn't really see it but we still just shake our heads and recall the worst night (so far!)
Hope this little snippet sheds some light on a teeny bit of our travels.
Also Happy Birthday week to my lovely brothers. Man your both getting old! Which must make mum and dad feel even older!
Much love
Steph and Lou x x x
p.s. yes I know I used 'this' alot - but I like it ok!
Our alarm was set for an early start the next morning as we were hopping onto another bus heading to Sydney. As mentioned before Lou is in charge of the time/phone/alarm and always asks me what time we should wake up. Guaranteed I will say a time and she will set it 15mins earlier so we can have a 'lie in'. Our catch the bus day was no different. The only downside to this plan was that Lou presumed (silly billy) that I read the pick up time correctly. Checking things like this whilst in the cab and being 20 minutes late is not fun. For some reason I was sure we were meeting at 6.50, yet the darn little piece of paper said 6.30 - big oops on my part. After frantically calling the bus company and being told 'the bus will wait for no-one' we headed straight to the head office to meet it there. Luckily for us (well mainly me as I had messed up) the bus was running late too. Lesson for the day: I say the pick up time and then Lou checks it.
Being the last on the bus we had the back seat which was the worst as we couldn't hear anything our tour guide Shelley said (we later realised that this was a blessing as she got over excited whenever she saw any type of animal and would scream the animal name whilst slamming on the breaks!) Anyways some familiar faces in the form of Natalie, Marcel, Adrian and Fernando from our other tours faced us on the bus which was cool and we soon settled into the journey. So our journey to Melbourne had began. We started off by heading into the Grampians, a mountain range, and our first walk. We got all geared up for our walk but then the heavens opened and a few of us decided that it was too cold and rainy to climb the mountain so we sat and waited in the bus for hours. At this point our British nature had escaped us. And weren't we glad about it when the others arrived back on the bus soaked through and teeth trembling. That night after everyone had dried off and warmed up we had Lou's favourite spag bol and an early ish night. An eventful day of mishaps!
Our Great Ocean Road trip began with a clear blue skies...behind the clouds that lurked. It was cold. Many of us felt cheated by the cold weather as somewhere in a travel brochure in our rooms back home it said that December was the start of summer. Well sorry Australia you promised sunshine so it was only fair that it had to put up with the same winter outfits for 3days in a row. My look consisted of leggings and a hoodie and Lou embraced the jean hoodie combo. Along the Great Ocean road we stopped and saw many of it's famous sites such as London Bridge (looks like a bridge) Mackenzie Waterfalls (alot of steps were climbed today) and the 12 Apostles (they lie, there are only 8 now.) We did great impressions of tourists, jumping out of the bus, whipping our jumpers off (if we were brave), taking photos with Natalie's amazing camera that made it look hot and then jumping back on the bus again! That night we headed back out to the 12 Apostles for sunset which was amazing as the sun and clouds worked together to give us some great Kodak moments. At this point Australia was forgiven for it's coldness and simply admired.
The next day we were back on the road and Melbourne bound. Along the way we stopped off at Kennett River for some wild Koala spotting. We were rewarded with baby Koalas hiding in the trees with their mums. Shelley also gave us some bird feed for the brightly coloured birds that hung out in the same trees. Yes I now may seem stupid but whilst gazing up at the Koalas thinking they had it pretty good (love the idea of all that sleep) I kinda forgot I had two handfuls of bird seed in my hand. I was rudely reminded when a bird swooped down and attacked me. Later it was mentioned that the bird simply landed on me. But at the time I felt under attack! Soon the whole group had birds all over them and many photos were snapped. Lou even had one land on her head which she loved until I pointed out it might think her head was a toilet! After the walking in the shoes of Dr Doolittle for a while we were back on the bus for the long stretch towards Melbourne.
We arrived in Melbourne and checked into our hostel and settled for an early ish night as surprise surprise we had an early morning wake up. That night was possibly one of the worst nights sleep we both had. The guys in our room were out partying and seemed to lost the ability to move around quietly when they returned. They also seemed to forgot to close the door whilst using the bathroom. And at one point the guy above Lou was coughing so much he sounded like he was going to be sick onto Lou's bag on the floor below - nice! She also had the squeakiest bed ever. On one of his many trips to the bathroom the guy above lou (we shall call him GAL now) obviously left his bed empty. However upon returning to it he realised someone else had climbed into it. GAL was not impressed and started to kick up a fuss. The guy sleeping by the door (DG) took charge and turned the light on. After a quick head count we realised there were 9 people in a 8 bed dorm. A drunken guy had somehow got into our room and commandeered GAL's bed. DG did a fine job of shepherding him out and we all finally got to bed. It was 4am. Our alarm went off at 5am. We woke. We weren't quite. We didn't care. Since this night we have been asked 'what did you think of Melbourne?' To be fair we didn't really see it but we still just shake our heads and recall the worst night (so far!)
Hope this little snippet sheds some light on a teeny bit of our travels.
Also Happy Birthday week to my lovely brothers. Man your both getting old! Which must make mum and dad feel even older!
Much love
Steph and Lou x x x
p.s. yes I know I used 'this' alot - but I like it ok!
Tuesday 8 February 2011
From point A to A (Alice to Adelaide)
Waking up at 4am is not fun. Fact. By this time Lou and I had realised it is best if we don't try and communicate with words when we first wake up and favour nods of acknowledgment and the occasional point instead. Apparently according to Lou (who is now the keeper of time and therefore the alarm) waking me up is not too fun as I usually look at her with utter confusion and the occasional frown and the morning of the tour was no different - sorry Lou! But we managed to get our stuff together in time and by 4.45am we were sitting on our bus with 20 other people in silent respect of the time of day.
We were thrown into the deep end by starting the day with a 6km hike/trek/pulling ourselves up by our arms walk around Kings Canyon which was spectacular. The first part of the climb was the worst as there was no shade and was constantly climbing upwards but we managed to make it to the top and by this time glowing slightly and a tad red in the face (me rather than Lou!) Walking along the top of the canyon was fun, though my heart did skip a few beats when Lou and I posed for photos on a jutting rock waaay above the gorge and then skipped a few more beats when lou clambered higher to get better photos. We continued our walk through to 'The Garden of Eden' and Lou and some of the others swam in the crystal clear water to cool off - simply paradise! After our day walk we were back on the bus and onwards to watch sunset whilst looking at Mount Connor (which we all mistook for Uluru). We finally arrived at our camp after a long day and was treated to a BBQ of camel and Kangaroo which was surprisingly tasty. That night we spent in swags, a massive sleeping bag with a mattress inside it, under the stars. The sky was so clear and I have never seen so many stars before in my life, I even saw some shooting stars which topped off a brilliant start to the trip.
Waking up at 3.40am is not too fun either and especially not for Lou as she had been bitten on the forehead in the night! We were off to see the rock in the center of Australia at sunrise. After watching sunrise we walked around the base of Uluru which was 11km, everyone was glad to do the walk in the (relative) cool of the morning before it got too hot. Uluru is breathtaking. By this time it was only 9am, but felt alot later and we headed off to Kata Tjuta to walk through another rock formation that looked like two domes. The walk on Walpa Gorge was about 2.6km - Lou and I have realised that we were really enjoying the walking and climbing which surprised us both! After lunch some of the group left as they were just doing Uluru and we were left with 3 girls and 11 guys. We got on really well as a group and it was fun to met people from different parts of the world. We spent a couple of hours chilling out in the pool at the campsite before heading back to Kata Tjuta viewing point where we could take in the 360degree view of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. We then headed back to Uluru for champagne aka sparkling fizz and sunset. We proceeded to spend the next hour taking funny photos with the rock, it was especially funny trying to get lou to look like she was lying down on the top. The best we could do was for Simon and I to hold her up which got a few stares from the other tourists!! Again the day ended with sleeping under the stars in our swags whilst trying to tune out Stonnes (a Canadian) snoring!
Another early morning greeted us but today was spent sleeping on the bus as we travelled to Coober Pedy. We stopped off at the Northern territory/southern border for photos ops and had to put our clocks an hour earlier. After our mini stop it was back in the bus for another long drive which was spent listening to Aussie Hip Hop (which we both loved!) and some questionable boy music. Barabra Streisland also became our group song and pepped us all up throughout the journey. We arrived at Coober Pedy at around 3ish and it was 40degrees with no wind. Coober Pedy is an opal mining town that is basically built underground with home and shop fronts on the surface and then everything else built downwards as it is cooler. We went on a tour of a disused opal mine. Whilst the lady was talking to us (and repeatedly telling us how deep we were) I noticed that Lou and gone a lovely shade of grey. She felt really claustrophobic, sick and dizzy so had to leave the tour half way to go back up to ground level :( Once the tour was finished and lou went back to her normal colour we went to a kangaroo sanctuary where we both got to hold a joey that was sooo cute. That night we went to the local underground bar and proceeded to get our group up and dancing. That night was spent sleeping in an underground bunker. Lou was alright with her claustrophobic as it was cut into a mountain rather than built downwards - phew!
The next day was another long day spent on the bus with a stop off at Glendambo Roadhouse which had a population of 30 people! We really were in the outback. We finally arrived at Quorn, a sleepy little town, in the Flinders Rangers and chilled out till dinner. Someone had the great idea of watching wolf creek as we were at the place where it was filmed. It was so scary to be watching the film in the middle of no where and both me and lou managed to scare ourselves silly whilst trying not to look to girly in front of the guys! The rest of the evening was spent chatting and listening to music - a very chilled out day.
We got to lie in till 8am this morning which felt like luxury! We still had to wake Ben our guide up though, but no one was fussed as he was a relaxed guy and made our tour really enjoyable. We took the bus to Flinders Rangers National Park and on route we stopped off Kanyaka Homestead Historical Site which was apparently famous for it's sheep shearing!? Our next stop was at an Aboriginal site called Yourabulla Caves where we saw some original aboriginal paintings. We were back on the bus for a drive to Wilpena pound resort which was the site of a meteorite hit (we think!) We were let loose into the wilderness by Ben and were told 'it's easy to find the lookout, just walk up there'. 45mins later we realised we were lost and quite literally wandering around in the outback. At this point some people in the group were like let's go this way and others wanting to go another way - again me and lou made references to the horror movie formula where the group splits up. Eventually we all decided to stick together and found the lookout point path. We had all simply walked past it! Once we reached the top we were a little disappointed as we were smack bang in the middle of the site and couldn't really get a real perspective on what we were looking back. That evening we had a random game of lawn bowls which was fun. Though Lou and I were rubbish at it! The old man in charge took a shine to Lou and creeped her out a bit, which I found funny. After our disastrous game we had a chilled out evening drinking our goon.mmm yummy!
Our last day of tour didn't start to well with the bus refusing to start up. It was funny as the guys pushed the bus onto the main street to try and give it a jump start but it failed miserably. Eventually the bus was fixed and we were on our way to our last hike 'Devil's Peak.' Climbing the mountain was one of the best experiences we had, the group was great and we all kept motivating each other and the views were spectacular. When we got to the top there was this massive crag we had to climb up, luckily as I had longer legs I managed to get a good foot hold and scramble up. Lou on the other hand couldn't pull or climb up and had to be hauled onto the top rock by Rudi and Marcel, which was funny to watch! We reached the peak and everyone chilled out and sat in silence just taking in our surroundings (and trying to get our breath back!) Was truly a memorable experience! The way down was just as fun and probably a little harder - my tactic was to slide down most of the mountain on my bum - a slow but successful solution. Lou on the other hand was far faster and was one of the first down the mountain. Unluckily for her she was waiting at the bottom with millions of biting ants who took a shining to her red trainers. It was funny seeing her trying to shake them off her shoes whilst in the bus!
That night we arrived in Adelaide and went out for a last group drink together. Lou and I were staying by the beach so had to get the tram into the city. We thought we would take some drink on the tram with us but later found out this is illegal - we were lucky we weren't caught as they are quite strict about this - oops! Once out we had fun dancing the night away and even going on a bucking bronco in a deserted club! A fun end to an amazing 6 days! We are glad we got to see a different part of Australia that some people leave out altogether, and met some great people along the way.
Going to be continuing the writing soon as I am sooo far behind with this blog. Next installment will be Adelaide to Sydney part of the trip....
Hope you are all ok at home and a tad warmer now!
Lot's of love
Steph and Lou
We were thrown into the deep end by starting the day with a 6km hike/trek/pulling ourselves up by our arms walk around Kings Canyon which was spectacular. The first part of the climb was the worst as there was no shade and was constantly climbing upwards but we managed to make it to the top and by this time glowing slightly and a tad red in the face (me rather than Lou!) Walking along the top of the canyon was fun, though my heart did skip a few beats when Lou and I posed for photos on a jutting rock waaay above the gorge and then skipped a few more beats when lou clambered higher to get better photos. We continued our walk through to 'The Garden of Eden' and Lou and some of the others swam in the crystal clear water to cool off - simply paradise! After our day walk we were back on the bus and onwards to watch sunset whilst looking at Mount Connor (which we all mistook for Uluru). We finally arrived at our camp after a long day and was treated to a BBQ of camel and Kangaroo which was surprisingly tasty. That night we spent in swags, a massive sleeping bag with a mattress inside it, under the stars. The sky was so clear and I have never seen so many stars before in my life, I even saw some shooting stars which topped off a brilliant start to the trip.
Waking up at 3.40am is not too fun either and especially not for Lou as she had been bitten on the forehead in the night! We were off to see the rock in the center of Australia at sunrise. After watching sunrise we walked around the base of Uluru which was 11km, everyone was glad to do the walk in the (relative) cool of the morning before it got too hot. Uluru is breathtaking. By this time it was only 9am, but felt alot later and we headed off to Kata Tjuta to walk through another rock formation that looked like two domes. The walk on Walpa Gorge was about 2.6km - Lou and I have realised that we were really enjoying the walking and climbing which surprised us both! After lunch some of the group left as they were just doing Uluru and we were left with 3 girls and 11 guys. We got on really well as a group and it was fun to met people from different parts of the world. We spent a couple of hours chilling out in the pool at the campsite before heading back to Kata Tjuta viewing point where we could take in the 360degree view of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. We then headed back to Uluru for champagne aka sparkling fizz and sunset. We proceeded to spend the next hour taking funny photos with the rock, it was especially funny trying to get lou to look like she was lying down on the top. The best we could do was for Simon and I to hold her up which got a few stares from the other tourists!! Again the day ended with sleeping under the stars in our swags whilst trying to tune out Stonnes (a Canadian) snoring!
Another early morning greeted us but today was spent sleeping on the bus as we travelled to Coober Pedy. We stopped off at the Northern territory/southern border for photos ops and had to put our clocks an hour earlier. After our mini stop it was back in the bus for another long drive which was spent listening to Aussie Hip Hop (which we both loved!) and some questionable boy music. Barabra Streisland also became our group song and pepped us all up throughout the journey. We arrived at Coober Pedy at around 3ish and it was 40degrees with no wind. Coober Pedy is an opal mining town that is basically built underground with home and shop fronts on the surface and then everything else built downwards as it is cooler. We went on a tour of a disused opal mine. Whilst the lady was talking to us (and repeatedly telling us how deep we were) I noticed that Lou and gone a lovely shade of grey. She felt really claustrophobic, sick and dizzy so had to leave the tour half way to go back up to ground level :( Once the tour was finished and lou went back to her normal colour we went to a kangaroo sanctuary where we both got to hold a joey that was sooo cute. That night we went to the local underground bar and proceeded to get our group up and dancing. That night was spent sleeping in an underground bunker. Lou was alright with her claustrophobic as it was cut into a mountain rather than built downwards - phew!
The next day was another long day spent on the bus with a stop off at Glendambo Roadhouse which had a population of 30 people! We really were in the outback. We finally arrived at Quorn, a sleepy little town, in the Flinders Rangers and chilled out till dinner. Someone had the great idea of watching wolf creek as we were at the place where it was filmed. It was so scary to be watching the film in the middle of no where and both me and lou managed to scare ourselves silly whilst trying not to look to girly in front of the guys! The rest of the evening was spent chatting and listening to music - a very chilled out day.
We got to lie in till 8am this morning which felt like luxury! We still had to wake Ben our guide up though, but no one was fussed as he was a relaxed guy and made our tour really enjoyable. We took the bus to Flinders Rangers National Park and on route we stopped off Kanyaka Homestead Historical Site which was apparently famous for it's sheep shearing!? Our next stop was at an Aboriginal site called Yourabulla Caves where we saw some original aboriginal paintings. We were back on the bus for a drive to Wilpena pound resort which was the site of a meteorite hit (we think!) We were let loose into the wilderness by Ben and were told 'it's easy to find the lookout, just walk up there'. 45mins later we realised we were lost and quite literally wandering around in the outback. At this point some people in the group were like let's go this way and others wanting to go another way - again me and lou made references to the horror movie formula where the group splits up. Eventually we all decided to stick together and found the lookout point path. We had all simply walked past it! Once we reached the top we were a little disappointed as we were smack bang in the middle of the site and couldn't really get a real perspective on what we were looking back. That evening we had a random game of lawn bowls which was fun. Though Lou and I were rubbish at it! The old man in charge took a shine to Lou and creeped her out a bit, which I found funny. After our disastrous game we had a chilled out evening drinking our goon.mmm yummy!
Our last day of tour didn't start to well with the bus refusing to start up. It was funny as the guys pushed the bus onto the main street to try and give it a jump start but it failed miserably. Eventually the bus was fixed and we were on our way to our last hike 'Devil's Peak.' Climbing the mountain was one of the best experiences we had, the group was great and we all kept motivating each other and the views were spectacular. When we got to the top there was this massive crag we had to climb up, luckily as I had longer legs I managed to get a good foot hold and scramble up. Lou on the other hand couldn't pull or climb up and had to be hauled onto the top rock by Rudi and Marcel, which was funny to watch! We reached the peak and everyone chilled out and sat in silence just taking in our surroundings (and trying to get our breath back!) Was truly a memorable experience! The way down was just as fun and probably a little harder - my tactic was to slide down most of the mountain on my bum - a slow but successful solution. Lou on the other hand was far faster and was one of the first down the mountain. Unluckily for her she was waiting at the bottom with millions of biting ants who took a shining to her red trainers. It was funny seeing her trying to shake them off her shoes whilst in the bus!
That night we arrived in Adelaide and went out for a last group drink together. Lou and I were staying by the beach so had to get the tram into the city. We thought we would take some drink on the tram with us but later found out this is illegal - we were lucky we weren't caught as they are quite strict about this - oops! Once out we had fun dancing the night away and even going on a bucking bronco in a deserted club! A fun end to an amazing 6 days! We are glad we got to see a different part of Australia that some people leave out altogether, and met some great people along the way.
Going to be continuing the writing soon as I am sooo far behind with this blog. Next installment will be Adelaide to Sydney part of the trip....
Hope you are all ok at home and a tad warmer now!
Lot's of love
Steph and Lou
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