Sunday, January 30, 2005
Rottnest and Margaret River
Phill: 30/1 to 3/2, Perth - We finally got to spend a day with Rachael and Richie when we took the ferry over to Rottnest Island. This little island just of the coast is the only home to an animal called a Quokka, which could easily be mistaken for a giant rat, hence the island's name. They're pretty harmless, and very tame, if a little pathetic-looking, but the island itself is a picture-postcard. With a loan of a bike from R&R and hire of another, we spent the day pretty much circumnavigating the whole island, with stops for swimming, eating and drinking along the way. It was a great day out, if a little exhausting for the out-of-shape non-cyclists amongst us - yup, me and Ren! We wanted to buy dinner for Team Hope that night (as in "hope we make it"), but R&R are admirably healthy, and wanted a BBQ and salad, so we just bought that instead, which they cooked with a skill that only people living is Oz possess. That night, those guys also got us a free night in a hotel that was on the way to our next desination, which was such a blessing that for us it was 5-star.The next day we continued down to Pemberton, and though we were let down by the Berry Farm being closed, we did make it to the Gloucester Tree. The is a 61 metre (200 feet) tall tree that has a spiral of iron spikes hammered into it that people insane enough can climb up to the fire-lookout platform at the top. Ren hadn't made it up the last time she came here, and she was determined to make it up there this time, whether I wanted to or not. So, not wanting to be outdone we climbed up despite there being no safety net of any description - and to be honest, it wasn't too bad, once you got over the fear of slipping between the rungs and falling to your death below. The drive from Pemberton to Augusta was wonderful, taking you through forests of similar Karri Trees before we arrived at the meeting point of two oceans. That's what Augusta is known for - it's the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Antarctic Ocean (Southern Ocean to the Aussies). We had a great seafood meal at a hotel near our campsite, and went into the bar to watch an Aussie-Irish singer (Rory Faithfield) and meet some of the locals.
It was freezing that night, and not much warmer the next day when we went to the lighthouse to get the obligatory two-ocean photo, and as we'd been to the petrified waterwheel the day before we headed on up into wine country.
In Margaret River, we did what you should - which is tour several wineries, taste lots of wine/chocolate/fudge, buy a little of each, and drink a little more besides. Fantastic cream scones and fruit wines at the (not Pemberton) Berry Farm, a tour of Leeuwin Estate where the Sting Tsunami concert was being held the next day (also got to taste an Art Series Shiraz before it went to oak), and beers at the Bootleg Brewery. We had some devilish hot chocolate, some huge food-portions at the Knights Inn, watched the sunset windsurfers at Prevelly Park, and saw some weird animals on the campsite/farm that we stayed on. We also tasted cheese and yoghurt, and bought some cheese for our hosts (they don't really drink much) before heading up to Dunsborough to meet Todd and Helen for lunch just before they set off on their honeymoon.
All too quickly, our time in WA was coming to an end, as we headed back into Perth for our final night. Ren showed me a little more of the city, including the gorgeous King's Park - one of many places I wished we'd had more time. Then we met Rachael for coffee and she took us to her office to let us get some computer time, and pick up at least a few new songs for Ren's iPod! We went over to the Berson household to visit Amy and her family, which was all too short, and then back for a light dinner with Rachael as Richie had gone to bed ill.
The morning came too quickly, and after some goodbyes to our generous hosts, we were off again to drop off the hire-car. We'd left plenty of time, but weren't in any danger of getting a taxi quickly before a lovely woman pulled over in her car and offered us a lift to the airport - how nice is that? After Ren parted with her favourite scissors by forgetting they were in her hand-luggage we took the flight back to Alice, with a better cryptic crossword and an even better view of Uluru. We collected the car, ate a meal that included kangaroo, emu, camel and crocodile, and it was back to the campsite again.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Perth (Australia, not Scotland)
Phill: 26/1 to 28/1, Perth - After packing up, parking at the Police Barracks (thank Gill!) and taking a taxi, we found ourselves on a flight to Perth via Ayer's Rock. This luckily gave us the scenic flight for free, although the photo's weren't too great through a plane-window! Western Australia (WA) really is huge. There's nothing out there either - I was amazed at just how much desert and very little else we saw in the 4-hour flight across to Perth. Thank you Qantas for providing cryptic crosswords in your in-flight magazine to keep us entertained! Renee's friend Rachael kindly picked us up from the airport, and she and her fiance Richie let us use their home as a base for our WA visit. It was nice, if a little overwhelming, to go from being just the two of us into an Australia Day Party, which R&R were hosting when we arrived. This consisted of drinking a few cold beers, walking dow to the river to enjoy a fantastic fireworks display, and then back to the house again to be force-fed Australian desserts. Many of you will know that I have a bit of a thing for Pavlova, but did you know that these guys invented it?The next day, we walked into the city to pick up our hire-car. Perth is really very beautiful with pretty waterways, a nice skyline and lots of catering for the outdoor lifestyle, with people walking, running, cycling, skating and kayaking around us as we went. Later we visited Helen and Todd for a cuppa - by an amazing coincidence, these two university friends of Renee were getting married that weekend, and invited us to the wedding - stunning! But first we were heading up north for a few hours drive to The Pinnacles, which are limestone rock formations that stick up out of the desert. We accidentally took a somewhat scenic route to Cervantes, the nearest town, and just missed the sunset there, but it was fun anyway, as there is a track marked through the sand for you to drive along, which when combined with the rock-pillars themselves make for some sort of crazy obstacle course that was fun to drive. That night we ate at the only pub in town, which we learned a few days later actually belonged to Todd's parents (it's a small world over here) - it was really windy and pretty cold as the breeze almost always comes straight in from the sea on this coast.
We got up for the sunrise, which I wasn't too impressed with at the time, and drove out to the Pinnacles again, where we stood - alone - awaiting the desperately needed heat from the sun. It was freezing! Of course - some people would say that I'm a bit silly for going into the desert at night in shorts and a t-shirt, but I knew it'd warm up eventually. The sunrise was spectacular, lending a really eerie quality to the moment, enhanced by a lack of other tourists. I took something in the region of 100 photo's, that I later whittled down to about 20! It was brilliant. Feeling inspired, we left the car where it was, and ran a circuit of the 3.5km track before heading off to look around the rest of the National Park and take pics of the Kangaroos. It was a great day out, and one I'd recommend to budding photographers - and the drive back was significantly shorter!
That evening, Ren had arranged to meet up with another two lovely friends from university, Amy and Kelly. We joined them for drinks, a nice meal and of course a whole 4 years-worth of gossip, before heading to a cafe for coffees at about 11ish. Kelly and Amy gave us a lift home and we parted with the promise to come visit Amy's family before we left Perth. The only downer was the impossibility of finding time in an already tight schedule.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Accommodation at The Rocks
Phill: 22/1 to 23/1, Ayer's Rock and Kings Canyon Resorts - The previous post wouldn't be complete without a rant about accommodation at those places, but I didn't want to bring the tone of the other post down, so I kept it seperate. Accommodation at those places sucks! They know that they've got you over a barrel because you have no choice, and so the places there charge several times the going rate for dorms and rooms. Food and drinks are crazily inflated, but luckily campsites are just $32 per night - the going rate is around $20. What's bad about the camping though, is that the places just aren't up to scratch, regardless of what the LP says (we don't think they've actually stayed there, just had a look around). Sure they've ignored the drought and hose-pipe ban to provide grass for you, and that's nice, but providing one fridge and BBQ for every 300 people is pretty lame. Imagine how bad it gets during high-season, when there are over 3 times the number of people staying there! It's probably easier ranting if I just summarise: mice, cockroaches, rubbish bathrooms, broken BBQs and having to cook by the pool, ants, flies, being expected to camp either by the BBQ or outside the toilets, tiles so hot that burgers half-cook in their packaging, laundry with no rinse-cycle, petrol that changes from 115 cents/ltr to 138 cents/ltr in just 300kms (just too far to make it in and back one one tank), one sink, and one fridge which is useless because people put 50 litre containers full of warm-water in there in the bizarre hope that it will somehow all cool overnight - I think not!
Saturday, January 22, 2005
The Rocks
Phill: 22/1 to 24/1, Ayer's Rock - Now before anyone starts telling me off for calling it Ayer's Rock, I have to explain that the resort we stayed at, and the airport are still called Ayer's Rock, and that's where we stayed, so that's the location for this post. Uluru, for Non-Aussies (or those that just don't know!) is the Aboriginal name for Ayer's Rock - and the Aussie Govt is doing a pretty steady job of changing the names back, seeing as the natives were there long before us nasty Europeans came in and took over. So we drove out for our first view of the Rock (as the Aussies call it) at sunset, our long-distance photo's spoilt slightly by an inconsiderate couple that pulled off the road a couple of hundred metres in front of us. We also had a great couple in a camper-van that couldn't figure out how to follow big arrows and that the little hut with the big window is where you pay, and you should pull the van up close the that side, not as far away as possible. Ho hum. We drove up close to the Rock first, and had a little look around, including a look at the chain alongside The Climb. It sure gets a lot of hype, but Uluru is pretty unusual and definitely worth seeing both up close and from afar. We drove back and settled in to our sunset spot, where it's very easy to go camera crazy - especially with a digital. The "life-changing colour display of sunset at Uluru" is way overhyped, but it is interesting to see, and a nice spot at which to sit and enjoy a little time out as most people have about them a sort of hushed awe, which is cool.
As we were moving campsites closer to the sites each night, we were up in the mornng to pack our tent in the dark to make it over to Uluru for the sunrise. If we hadn't been getting up early to do some walking, with hindsight, I'd have given this a miss. There's no viewing area as such, just some parking space by the roadside, and hordes of people everwhere, and instead of sitting quietly, they're standing in each others' way, and climbing on things to get photo's above everyone else's heads, etc. There were four buses just from one tour company to give you some idea of the numbers. The only pleasant bit was after everyone had left (tour-bus schedule) and we could peacefully just have a look and take a few last photo's.
Most people at this point head off for the climb, but this is a controversy in itself. Uluru is a scared site for the Aboriginals, and as such they don't like people climbing all over it, and all of the official information given to you when you pay park entry asks you not to climb. On the other hand though, the chain is still in place, and it's a tradition probably a hundred or more years old for travellers to The Centre to climb The Rock. It's a quandry allright. For us, we were sort of won-over when we discussed the comparison of someone running an abseiling company atop St Paul's Cathedral or of those hippies that aren't even Pagans climbing over the rocks at Stonehenge. That plus we just got fed up of not being able to decide whether to or not, so we opted to go to The Olgas instead.
The Olgas, or Kata Tjuta, are a series of rock formations much like Uluru, but each is smaller in both height and girth. What makes these really interesting though, is the walk throught the Valley of the Winds, which is a 3-hour-long hike through some amazing landscapes, a lot of people (us included) find this place a lot more interesting that The Rock itself, and with the temperature heading towards the 42C mark by 10:15am, we were very glad we did the walk early and in the cool shade. There were many times that day, and the next, that we were very happy to have bought our personal fly-nets, as there were hundreds of the bloomin' things!
We drove over to Kings Canyon ready for our next dawn-patrol, the highlight of which was spending the evening chatting with a semi-retired couple from Canada and Wales, and playing rock videos on the video-jukebox.
The next morning brought more fun packing the tent in the dark and heading out for a sunrise-hike. Kings Canyon is pretty cool, starting with a fairly hard climb up, and then an other-worldy hike around the rim. The walks are done in typically excellent Aussie fashion, with lookouts and photo opportunities galore - I filled a memory card in just a few days at this point, so perhaps we shouldn't post all of those pics! Atop the canyon is a place called the Garden of Eden, where water gathers because of the different rock-types underfoot, creating a bizarre tropical green area with a swimming-hole that was crowded with tour-groups. Another great walk, finishing in the blazing heat, having consumed a ridiculous amount of water between us - well, that's what you get for hanging out in the desert I guess!
Monday, January 17, 2005
Aboriginal Art
Phill: 17/1 - To offset my rant on the "finger-painting" theme earlier, I'd like to give some great examples of this art style that are definitely worth a look. The Parliament building in Darwin has some huge and beautiful dot paintings and the Museum there also has some interesting exhibits. One of those exhibits has some fascinating tree-bark paintings, as well as the dot-style, and also some really unusual carvings. Either way, I'm no art critic - thank goodness for everyone including me!
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Darwin in "The Wet"
Phill: 16/1 to 19/1, Darwin - So we were looking for accommodation, and foolishly took the first place that we found on our shortlist, Globetrotters. After a lot of messing about trying to find out why our air-con wasn't working, we discovered that up here in Darwin, air-con only comes on at night (for no reason other than they can save money that way). The room was pretty awful, lit by a single fluorescent strip light that looked like it was running on half-brightness and gave off less light than a computer monitor - Ren climbed up on my shoulders twice to try and get it brighter in there, but to no avail. This situation wasn't helped by the walls being painted alternatingly in crimson and purple. Not pretty, and so dark that we turned in pretty early that night, but not before having a couple of drinks at Rorke's Drift (an English theme pub, named after a Welsh battle in Africa), and watching The Incredibles movie. I think Ren and I like movies too much - but then again, drinking just for the sake of it is probably worse. In the morning, we decided to change accomodation, and stayed at a place called Melaluka - which is fantastic, another one of those "looks like a resort, priced like a hostel places". Darwin had to be one of those stops where we did quite a few chores, getting the car windscreen replaced, and the safety inspection (MOT) done to renew our registration (Road Tax). Ren really enjoyed testing the car's brakes on rollers, especially when the handbrake test makes the car jump about 2 feet backwards! We did manage to fit in some cool stuff, like the Musuem, the Parliament Building, and the Wildlife Park.
The Territory Wildlife Park is a nice, really well done place that thanks to low numbers of people had a fairly cosy intimate feel, and we got to listen to most of the talks by the keepers there in small groups, which was nice. All the animals there are native to the Northen Territory state (NT), with some slightly unusual things like an up-close look at the birds of prey (once the screaming kids had left), pelican and crocodile feeding, wallaby feeding and fish feeding with the most enormous stingray. As usual, the aviaries weren't so great, but the spiders that had made their home around the park were fascinating, as well as the actual displays on spiders, snakes and reptiles. One additional feature was a nocturnal section where artificial night allowed you to see some pretty funky animals, and some unusual things like bats climbing around instead of flying - weird!
It really was wet-season, as we got caught in a storm one day, and it felt like a week's worth of rain in 30 minutes just fell out of the sky - made even more amazing by the road being so hot that the rain was turning to steam as it hit the ground. Whilst this drove our accommodation prices down, it left Darwin a pretty deserted place, and although the pubs were nice, there wasn't much atmosphere. We even ended up seeing another movie, Electra, which we couldn't recommend to a single person we know (even her outfit wasn't particularly skimpy). Dining-wise, we were once again cursing the LP as it managed to mention 3 restaurants, two of which are no longer open, and one that we just couldn't find - but the meals we did have were very good (Cafe Uno in particular). All in all, there's a couple of good things to do in Darwin, and it feels like a place that could be really cool when it's busier, but after 4 days, we were ready to leave.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Katherine Kontinued
Phill: Katherine, 15/1 to 16/1 - We got up fairly early and headed out to Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk National Park) where Gill had tried to take us the day before, but not before we'd had to turn back for the camera and other forgotten things. We'd arrived in the north of Oz during the wet season, but this was the first time it was starting to affect us - the river was running high and the gorge boat tours were only running up the first gorge (of 5) with a wade/walk and swim option to pass some time. Those of you following the blog will have read about some of the fantastic places we've swum recently - Halong Bay, Thailand's Islands, Emerald Pools (Krabi), Lake Birrawah (Fraser Island), oh and the Great Barrier Reef. We've been kind of spoilt, and the thought of swimming in a very muddy gorge, or a lot of the other water holes in NT didn't really grab us. It's a shame the river wasn't even higher, because then they run a pretty cool powerboat ride instead, but it wasn't going to happen. We went to go for a walk instead, but it wasn't clear if the walks were open, and the heat was unbearable - not to mention that there were paper-wasps eating us alive (and they hurt!) plus the flies in NT are amazingly irritating.
We gave up and joined Gill for a peaceful afternoon in front of the TV (Six Feet Under) until it was time for our tour of the Cutta Cutta caves. Those biting flies were still there, and one bit me so hard it drew a fair bit of blood. The rock formations were excellent on the walk to the cave though, and the cave itself was cool, but very humid. The guide was really good, even translating occasionally for the German fellow in our group, and as well as the cave we got to see small bats and a hatchling snake. The evening was a relaxed affair, Gill cooked for us before she went on night-shift, and we just walked the dog (Pepper), hung-out and watched movies, before Gill called up and took us on a tour in the police van.
We got up and had brekkie, and waited for Gill to get off work so that we could say goodbye. We had another wet-season disappointment later when we found the road to Litchfield National Park was flooded and closed - which was doubly annoying because we'd really wanted to go there, so we just continued on to Darwin.
We gave up and joined Gill for a peaceful afternoon in front of the TV (Six Feet Under) until it was time for our tour of the Cutta Cutta caves. Those biting flies were still there, and one bit me so hard it drew a fair bit of blood. The rock formations were excellent on the walk to the cave though, and the cave itself was cool, but very humid. The guide was really good, even translating occasionally for the German fellow in our group, and as well as the cave we got to see small bats and a hatchling snake. The evening was a relaxed affair, Gill cooked for us before she went on night-shift, and we just walked the dog (Pepper), hung-out and watched movies, before Gill called up and took us on a tour in the police van.
We got up and had brekkie, and waited for Gill to get off work so that we could say goodbye. We had another wet-season disappointment later when we found the road to Litchfield National Park was flooded and closed - which was doubly annoying because we'd really wanted to go there, so we just continued on to Darwin.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
From Kathryn To Katherine
Phill: Cairns, QLD to Katherine, NT - 11/1 to 14/1 - As any semi-responsible male, let alone one with a mechanically-minded father and brother, I felt I really ought to take a look under the bonnet (hood) of the car before we set off into the wilderness. Even though the car had been keeping an even temperature with no oil or water loss, one of the hoses had managed to split. Worryingly, it was the one that had split when I borrowed my sister's lemon of a car (also a Daewoo) that overheated repeatedly due to a cracked head-gasket. So we looked up a car-parts place, found a convieniently nearby Apple shop for a car-charger for Renee's iPod so that we'd have music for the next few days, and set off. The people at the auto-shop were really helpful, and a little while later, we'd replaced the hose, bought the charger and a set of jump-leads (just in case) and it was off into the Atherton Tableland.
This section of our trip was incredible. We're so glad we bought a car and drove ourselves because over the next few days we got to see so many different types of landscapes and scenery, and so much wildlife it was unbelievable. Wild kangaroos and wallabies, black kites circling overhead, wedge-tailed eagles, galahs galore, a huge muster of peacocks, a dingo, giant goannas, and one lizard that was so big we're sure it was one of the dragon-lizards but we don't know which type - it was HUGE! After seeing a hundred signs telling us to "Slow Down for Cassawaries" it wasn't until the day that we left QLD before we saw one - although it took us a little while to find out what the heck it was. We've seen the ubiquitous cane-toads, green frogs and the most enormous grasshoppers, one of which attacked me without provocation! The landscape changed from hills and valleys to tableland, savannah, wetlands, plains, and finally desert - all fantastic. Mind you, by breaking away even slightly from the normal tourist route (we went west to Normanton, then south to Cloncurry and West to Mt Isa, instead of heading back to Townsville and taking the main highway west) you really feel like you're in the middle of nowhere.
We saw some pretty remote little towns on the way too, with really friendly people. At Georgetown, we saw some teenage girls come face to face with the small-town fact that "I know your mum, Noreen, wouldn't want you girls to rent Kill Bill" in the petrol station/cafe/campground/video-store. We had to occasionally face the fact that sometimes we'd need the loo before we'd need petrol (and hence, before there was a toilet). We encountered our first real experience of the Aboriginal drinking problem in Elliot, where there are different laws to stop them drinking so much (laws that are ethnically fair, because they are requested by their own communities). We found mangoes at stupidly cheap prices (making Ren very happy), but had to eat them quickly, because the quarantines in Austrlia don't just apply to the island, they apply to states, and even areas of states! We encountered people crazy enough to cycle this journey - at the hottest time of the year! - and promised them that the next time we saw a cyclist we would act upon the idea we'd had of offering them a drink from our coolbox.
Finally we arrived at a large town - Katherine, population 5000 - where Gill lives. The short explanation is that Gill is the sister of a friend of Renee, and we were under orders to look her up. When we did (a few days in advance) - she told us that we would have to come and stay, which suited us, so as we came into Katherine we called and before we knew it we were sat in her house with a cup of tea. Gill's one of the great people that get right to the point, likes a drink and a laugh, and doesn't think you can ever have too many friends. She made us so welcome that we really relaxed for the first time in so long - it was bliss. Gill also has an enormous collection of (scarily alphabetised) DVDs with a nice home cinema system and was keen to let us do as much touring or as much chilling as we pleased. We spent the evening doing those wonderful things that you miss from home - getting a Chinese, watching a movie (King Arthur), visiting the local pub (police station bar, stupidly cheap), and polishing off some wine and cheese - bliss!
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Port Douglas
Phill: Port Douglas, 04/01 to 07/01 - As we were going to be meeting a friend (Kathryn Bilton) in Cairns later in the week, we decided to head further north up to Port Douglas first. On the way through, we met Leah's Dad for some advice on what to do in the area, and for a quick chat about our upcoming drive across The Outback, which was nice. We stopped off to buy a fan for the tent, as I simply wasn't sleeping anymore because it was so hot. The drive between Cairns and Port Douglas is amazing, it runs alongside all the Northern Beaches, and on the other side of the road is dense tropical forest - it's truly wonderful. We find the only real campsite in PD, and are gutted to discover that they don't have any powered sites for tent, so sure enough, I spend the next few nights sweating so profusely, it doesn't bear to be described. Really... I'm not going to describe it... yuk!
We took the drive up to Cape Tribulation one day (named so because Capt'n Cook had a really bad time sailing there), which was very scenic. It's "where the rainforest meets the reef", and as soon as you've taken the antiquated cable-ferry over the Daintree river, you really get that feeling that you're coming to the end of the world. It feels really wild and isolated there, and it was one of the couple of times that we wished we had a 4WD so that we could've explored futher. We took the road as far as we could, to the Cape Trib Beach house, where no-one could be bothered to serve us, so we headed back down to a place called PK's (where Sonia worked for a while) to grab some food. We visited the lookout points, and did one of the rainforest walks, which taught you more about trees than the human brain could ever hold I reckon, but it was enjoyable. On the journey back, we headed to Mossman Gorge, which despite the slightly misleading advertising making you think that you have to pay for a guided tour, was an excellent walking spot. Another thing the Aussies get right is walking tours... they're well signed, have interesting and informative things to read on the way, and generally have a choice of durations and difficulties to suit most people. This was a nice length walk, past lots of swim-holes in the gorge-river, and with lots of interesting information about the way the local Aboriginals used to hunt and live. There was also a fantastic strangling-fig tree that was huge!
We also decided that as we wanted to go snorkelling for more than just one day, we'd compare a trip from PD with a trip from Cairns, and that way not have to do 2 days in a row (which wasn't any cheaper anyway). In PD, we went out with Calypso, one of the more expensive carriers there. We did this on the recommendation of a British couple (originally from near Blackpool, now self-employed gardeners working 9 months a year in France) who pointed out that Calypso ran snorkelling only tours, and had a more reasonable maximum number of passengers - some of the boats out here take 300 people at once! They were fantastic, and the little extra bit of money went a long way to making the experience more enjoyable - things like you getting your own mask and fins to hold onto for the day, so you didn't have to taste disinfectant every time you went out. The snorkelling was great, really great - the water was much clearer than in the Whitsundays, and the reef was fantastic, plus we lucked-out with amazing blue-sky weather. They also did guided-snorkels, where they show you lots of things you might otherwise miss, and tell you all about the ecology of the reef - we just couldn't fault them, 10 out of 10.
On the boat, we met a couple of groups of nice people, and ended up inviting a family of Americans out for a beer after the trip. Dad (Dave) agreed, as did his "kids" Andrew and Ashley. Sadly, only Doris didn't fancy it, which was a shame, because as is the way when conversation flows freely, that one beer turned into 2, then 3, then before you knew it, we were wandering the streets around midnight because "Crazy Dave!" wanted to go clubbing. It was a great night out, with easy-going people - and their slightly odd situation of two children at universities in different US states, while Mum and Dad live in Sydney was really interesting. As with any good evening, Andrew decided to start jiving with me in the bar, followed by him doing the old "I'm off the the toilet"-and-never-returning trick. Classic! That night of course, was the hottest ever in history at 52C, and I lost 20% of my body weight through sweating (these figures may be exaggerated).
The next day brought with it the most awful dehydration - through the heat of course, not the beer... never the beer. We felt so rough, that we went to the mall to get a load of food for me, while Ren just spent the whole time with her head on the table, moaning. Despite a lack of insurance (though legal), I had to drive us back to Cairns because Ren didn't recover at any point that day! In Cairns, we checked into a hostel (also called Calypso coincidentally), had their $7 buffet for dinner, and slept our way to recovery.
Monday, January 03, 2005
Mission Beach
Phill: Mission Beach, 03/01/2005! - The drive from Townsville further up the coast was typically beautiful for QLD. It's great when every day can still bring each of us to say "Wow" at least a few times. On this journey, there is a fantastic lookout-point over the "Everglades", a stunning lush green wetland. Above the lookout, some wily souls have built a "Casual Casswary Devonshire Tea-House" with the best view of all, and with 20 or 30 choices of tea to have with your cream, jam and scones. Yum!
It seems that there's some sort of competition in Australia for which town can be the most deserted. Mission Beach was Deadsville-Central. Still, it was sunny and pretty, and we managed to find an open pub where we got a nice cheap dinner, and lots of ice-cold beers*. That night was so calm and clear-skied that Ren insisted we went down onto the beach to do some star-gazing. It was well worth it - it's so strange to realise that there are actually hundreds of other stars "obscuring" the major constellations - it's just normally you can't see them! Oh, and yes, as well as the water going down the plug-hole the other way, I can also confirm that Orion is upside down!
*There I am, trying to make people jealous with comments of ice-cold drinks, when probably most of you could think of nothing worse right now, in mid-winter, eh?
It seems that there's some sort of competition in Australia for which town can be the most deserted. Mission Beach was Deadsville-Central. Still, it was sunny and pretty, and we managed to find an open pub where we got a nice cheap dinner, and lots of ice-cold beers*. That night was so calm and clear-skied that Ren insisted we went down onto the beach to do some star-gazing. It was well worth it - it's so strange to realise that there are actually hundreds of other stars "obscuring" the major constellations - it's just normally you can't see them! Oh, and yes, as well as the water going down the plug-hole the other way, I can also confirm that Orion is upside down!
*There I am, trying to make people jealous with comments of ice-cold drinks, when probably most of you could think of nothing worse right now, in mid-winter, eh?
