Of all the places you can start typing a story, is this one of the most remarkable ones. At the moment I’m in the coffee corner of washing street. Sandy’s car needed a good wash…! Definitely a good wash! It’s been a long while since I’ve typed a story(probs just as long as sandy gave his car a wasg), mark the word typed! All the stories are ready, but only on paper… Not on the computer. So after a long while I’ll try to catch up with you!
This story is not gonna be about christmas, South Australia or my East coast trips… I promise to do those later on…! No, This one is about my red centre trip. My trip from Adelaide up to Darwin and through Kakadu National park, a trip close to a 5000 km on the road. Most peeps would think that’s the worst thing you can do, looking back at it… It’s on of the best things I’ve done!
I start with the Sunday, the night before I left. Due some issues at Tigerair I hadn’t received my ticket yet. So I had to call them up. During the day there was a que from over an hour… So I couldn’t be bothered waiting. Later in the evening I called again and I got a help full person on the line. She started by reconfirming my name: “Is that the B from Beuger (Duh!), the E from Europe, the U from USA, the G from Korea (wait what?!?!), the E from Europe and the R from Russia?” A part from the G from Korea was it pretty accurate, they were so friendly to reconfirm my tickets and send new one to my email-address.
The next day was an early morning my flight left at 8.20 so I left the Cameron’s house about 5.30. The flight to Adelaide takes about an hour. So pretty soon I was back on the ground. The the tricky part came, I had to go to the Adelaide CBD and find my YHA hostel. Quickly I found the bus towards the CBD, the bus driver was also very kind to me. I only had $50,- cash voor a $1,20 ticket so I could sit down without paying. Good people still exist! We were driving and driving and I was looking around and around… I couldn’t really see where I was. Apparently I looked so confused that the guy who sat opposite from me asked where I had to be. When I told him he said that we already passed that station (Of course!). I thanked the men and the bus driver for their help and I started walking back towards my hostel. By this time it was still about 10 – 11 AM! When I finally found my hostel the kind lady said to me that I was allowed to put my bags in their luggage room but that I couldn’t check in yet. Discovering the city was my plan, but first: Coffee! I found a great place on a corner called CIBO ESPRESSO (No, unfortunate I don’t get paid to put names in my blog). Lovely coffee and great start of my Red Centre trip. The next thing to do was buying charges, cause of course I forgot to bring the whole lot of charges… A few bucks poorer and some cables richer I was desperately looking for lunch. Eventually a found a lovely sandwich in one of the cafe’s along the way. The 1pm mark was passed so I was finally able to check in…! In my room were already three English blokes and an Australian. After some nice chatting I asked to them what I really needed to see in Adelaide, for the few hours I was there. With full commitment the Australian dude said the museum to me. So off I went. Walking past one off my favourite restaurant chains in the world: “Jamie’s Italian!”, past the war memorial towards the museum. It wasn’t very big, but it was interested. Their main gallery consisted material from the Aboriginal Culture something I was going to see for the next few days. It’s an interesting Culture, different but interesting. After my tour trough the museum I walked further, past the university dreaming about my future course, towards the botanical gardens. Every city had one in Australia! It’s a big garden (Definitely in the eyes of a Dutchie), green! very, very green. Not half dead like our garden back home. It’s a garden where you can’t hear the noise of the streets because the trees block it. It’s pure rest! Maybe not pure rest, of maybe far from it when there’re kids running around you playing and screaming… But it’s beautiful. Now I walked further out the city towards a kind of museum/information centre. The National Wine Centre Australia. No wine for me, just a look around… Because not much later I had to walk all the way back, past the botanical gardens, past the university, the museum, war memorial, Jamie’s Italian and a closed CIBO ESPRESSO… Not opening before 6.30am :(. I walked back to the hostel, just having a rest and a read. Cause I had a feeling that this wasn’t the last day I was gonna wake up early. After I gained enough energy to walk around the corner and get some nacho’s and a beer! Celebrating I survived another day backpacking. Not much later after I was back in my hostel bed I fell in a deep deep sleep…!
The next morning was early again! My tour would start about 6.30am, so after breakfast I walked outside to wait for my tourbus. The bus + trailer drives in front of my hostel, de driver/tourguide introduces himself as Rory. I take my seat in the bus, behind me sits Lucie (a French girl) and in front of me sits Kelsey (a Swedish girl). After another pickup we went with a full bus on our adventure trough the Red Centre. Because of the early morning everyone was still a bit quiet, but after a cup of coffee in the tiny village of Laura was everyone a bit more awake. The first day was a lot of driving but there was already a bit of talk. Meeting new people is one of the best experiences you’ll have during traveling. After another long sit was it round noon time for some lunch. Rory definitely tried to show off the first day, we had a real aussie BBQ with enough for twice as many people. Everyone did do their part in chopping, coocking or cleaning so everything was done in the blink of an eye. After lunch came the first real stop, BWS. Australian for Beer, Wine, and Spirits. But after that the real real first stop: Alligator Gorge. The name is ridiculous cause there’re no alligators in Australia. Neither in that Gorge. Gorge, Canyon there is a difference but it look almost the same… A part from the fact that the Alligator Gorge looked pretty green. Lots of trees and plant… (Do with this info whatever you want!) After some family pictures, a walk trough the scenery and a walk towards the beautiful lookout was it time to go back into the bus and drive our last bit for that day. We drove towards Quorn where we had our accommodation for that night. After Rory had parked the bus it was emptying the trailer and getting prepared for dinner. Menu: Spaghetti Bolognese + cheesecake as dessert. Kieran and I were the chefs for the onions and after our great effort we could take a beer and enjoy the rest of the evening. After a great dinner and dessert it was an early night, because bussing is not the most energetic activity.
The next morning was again an early morning, before sunrise we woke up and had some breakfast. We had again a lot of driving today. The first stop was at the start of the Stuart Highway, the road where we would travel on from Quorn towards Darwin. After we all took our touristy picture back in the bus, next stop petrol! An very important part from a road trip. What a lot of people told me is to fuel op at every fuel station in the red centre and I reckon we did. The fuel station was in de middle of nowhere. And finally we realised we were in the dessert. Nothing around us but sand. But after Rory put is bus full again it was back on the road! Just before lunch we passed by at the salt lakes (No not the city from the 2002 winter olympics!). Because the dessert once was an inland sea. Al the salt ended op in this place. This resulted in a perfect mirror! Only with the mountains you could tell the different between the sky and earth. On the salt there was a tiny layer of water, what made it look like you were walking on water. After the lovely jesus pictures it was time to hop back in the bus and go further with our road trip, but within the hour we arrived at one of our most important stops. Lunch! This time we mixed up some minced meat, veggies and spices for tortilla’s. I was in charge of grating the cheese, since Kieran broke the last grater, he was in charge of holding the container. Not much happened during lunch, a part from the fact Cosimo found a skull of a Joey (baby kangaroo). After this delicious lunch it was time to go back in the bus again for a drive towards Coober Pedy, it’s and old Opal miners village. Well old, they’re still mining for opal. When we arrived it was pretty stunning. Because the were already mining there, they decided to put their houses underground as well. So technically the only thing you saw were these mini chimneys sticking out of the ground. Our hostel room (the size of a massive ballroom) was also under the ground. Insane impressive. After we put all our stuff in the rooms, the food in the fridges and took the pictures we need. It was time for a tour through the opal mine. First we watched a movie about how the opal was discovered in Australia, then the tourgide (not Rory) showed us how opal was shaped in the form they have in jewels. The tour continued by going into the old miners place, to see how they lived back in the days. Just a bed, some candles to light the place and they stacked some crates as a cupboard. Not much later we stood in the modern version of a Coober Pedy house. The caves include everything. Kitchen, bathroom, toilet and living room with foxtel television. The bedrooms are dark, but really really dark there’s no way to see. After that we went some staircases deeper, towards the old (not operating) opal mine. She showed us how the miners worked a few years ago, and what machinery is used these days. It’s not all machinery yet, when the hear (yess hear!!!) the opal the still use the good old pickaxe. And the tour end like always in the giftshop… For dinner Rory reserved a table at the local Pizzeria. After a bit of a wait the waitresses came to the tables with this enormous pizza’s. After our lovely meal it was time for a bit of a tour trough Coober Pedy, you do have to know it’s not much bigger then a suburb in Melbourne. The highlights of the tour were the ATM and the church. The remarkable part about the church was the fact that it changes of religion every week, so one week its christian, the other week buddhist and the other one muslim and still all under the ground. When we were back in our cave (sounds very prehistoric) we found some dessert: cheesecake! And also some entertainment: trolleys! during some trolley races, that were insane dangerous even though the hill wasn’t that steep, we almost broke down half the cave. After Cosimo beat Rory we decided to stop for our own safety. I had a broken nose not much earlier that year… And after some good jokes about the other and louder Groovy Grape group we decided that sleep was one of the most important things we needed today.
The darkness makes you sleep great! Because this is one of the few times I woke up by the alarm. Outside it was pissing down, but no water in our cave. After some breakky we were on the road again. Not much later we reached the Southern Australia and Northern Territory border. Of course we had to make some family pictures with the massive sign. This day was another big day of driving, because the next stop was our lunch. We stopped for lunch at a service station just before the turnoff towards Uluru. Surrounded by emu’s, roast chicken was on the menu this afternoon, lovely in the never disappearing wraps. Apart from the occasionally toilet stops the drive was going straight towards Uluru (The big rock in the middle of OZ). Rory put on a bet, who first could see got a bottle of wine. If you were wrong he got the bottle… Cosimo was the first one to claim to see Ayers Rock. WRONG! Mt Connor, looks pretty much like it. (I don’t know if Cosimo gave the bottle at the end or not…) But eventually there it was, the rock standing on the cover of most
Australian travel magazines, the lonely planet etc. Was it impressive? Na not really. A part from the fact that het was made out of one rock and it was going another 300km down in the ground, it was just a rock in the middle of the dessert. We finally arrived at our camp in Uluru. And after unpacking the trailer, we went to the viewing point on our camp to watch the sunset over the Rock. Unfortunate there were to many clouds to see a really good sunset. But at least we had enough pictures of the rock. On our dinner menu was a good old aussie BBQ. Marco and I were in charge of the meat, while the rest was chopping for the salads. So after this lovely dinner, which was consumed around the campfire, we sat some more time around the campfire. Just before we went to bed Rory gave us a lesson in swags (No it’s not that what I have plenty of…!). A swag is a canvas sleeping bag where you sleep outdoors in. Yes the snakes can easily come inside that thing…! But you don’t want to think about that. After we all took the pictures in our sweet swags, it was time to go to sleep cause the next morning would be an early one again.
Jeez those swags sleep very good! Apart from the fact that I slept on my belly with my thumbs in my bellybutton… So halfway the night I urgently needed to go to the toilet. I can tell you that it’s a really bummer to do in the middle of the night :(. But after we put our swags safely in the tent, so they would keep dry in the rain… (But ey when will it rain in the middle of the dessert?!) we went back in the bus. On our way towards Uluru national park to see the sunrise over the Rock. We were at 6am the first one in the park! Before we started even looking at the sunrise we all needed to fill our stomaches with breakfast. The sunset following was stunning! The sky turned red, just a beauty! (If you want to see what I saw: https://www.facebook.com/jop.beuger/videos/830299527046391/?l=2065518602972187206 , you might need to be friends with me on FB…) After we cleaned, and the sun was fully risen, we stepped back in the bus and drove to Katje Tjuta. We did the walk inside the Valley of the Winds. One of the most stunning places I’ve seen. Massive red rocks on both sides, euro’s (not the coins!! But the rockkanga’s) and some green in-between. It felt like the Wild West in the early days, I only missed the horses. The walk went for about 8 km up, down and anything in-between. During the walk we needed to take the occasional family picture for Cosimo. (We’re still not sure with how many we ended…) After the walk it was time for some lunch. Kangaroo mince, with every vegetable in the eskies and some noodles. Cosimo did not really like the fact of eating Kangaroo mince. We took our time for the lunch, we were all a bit cooked from the walk of course. But after we were filled and everything was clean again we stepped back in the bus (I reckon the bus can be one of the main characters in this stories). Instead of driving straight towards the cultural centre we went to one of the water sources for the aboriginals. It was dry but really really dry. No water at all… The aboriginals used the water sources as landmarks. They put these landmarks in a song, and that was how you could travel trough Australia, just remember the songs. But these days everyone uses navigation systems. Cultural centre was the next stop, here you could read and see the stories from the aboriginals living in and around Uluru (It’s still aboriginal country). You were also able to buy aboriginal art and souvenirs. At the end the man from the shop gave us a trail on trowing a spear with an aboriginal spear thrower. It looked much easier then it was, definitely to hit the artificial rabbit… It was now almost time for sunset. Rory drove the bus to the Sunset parking spot, on this park there were some busses from another tour company. This tour company gave there customers free champagne… But hey its worth trying it for ourself. Cosimo went first, and with success! He had a glass of champagne, then Amilia followed him, as well with success! Chris and Maddy could also score a glass of champagne… Now it was my turn. Walk to the table, get the champagne and easily walk further. I never grabbed the champagne, no it was just water (something with nerves). But when I walked away I made the biggest mistake, I walked back to the rest of the backpackers… To keep a long story short, (cause jeez this blog is already 3.5 A4 papers long), I got caught and I had to hand in back my water. Without the rest of the family being noticed, they still went for more and more refills. Cosimo managed to get about a full bottle. After stressing, running and fleeing away in the van we decided to go to the pub in Uluru Resort. The pub was great. The best part were the line dancing camels… At least that’s what we told the rest of the family. There were camels in the pub, but unfortunately they were not line dancing. They were there because of the camel cup that was held the next day. (Same as the Melbourne Cup but then with camels). After a couple of hours Rory came back to pick us up, the rest of the family spoiled us by already making dinner ready: TACOS!!! And after this lovely dinner, we all were reasonably tired and ready to go to bed in our lovely swags…
Pissing down it was, but really really pissing down! Apparently it had rained the whole night. I slept that well that I hadn’t even noticed. Besides I had forgotten to close my swag, so my sleeping bag and stuff were all wet :S. But fine after we all hang up our swags, mattresses and sleeping bags it was time for some breakfast, and again back in the bus (5000km I was talking about). We went to a parking spot to watch sunrise, but unfortunately it was to cloudy for a better sunrise then the day before. So after we looked at the clouds it was time for us to go for a walk, the base walk around Ayers Rock. Rory walked the first few K’s with us, explained something more about the aboriginal culture, and then left us by ourselves. It looked a reasonable day to walk but after a while it was more then pissing down on us. It was raining in the bloody dessert! Raining! We became more and more soaked! Even more soaked then we were that morning. But after a while something on Ayers Rock revealed, something that only a few people can see every year. Waterfall! Ayers Rock had some amazing waterfalls! How’s this possible I hear you ask… On top of the rock are certain holes, the day and night before they filled with water because of the rain. But now more rain was falling down the holes were overflowing. And the gravity makes the water fall flow down the rock. (Should study for a physics or geography teacher…). During our walk we ended up at the same hole we were the day before, the one that was dry as… This time a beautiful waterfall was still filling it, while the water was already reaching the top of the hole. About 45 minutes later, Lisa, Cosimo, Amelia, Melanie, Sascha and I reached as last part of the family the bus. (We had Cosimo and he took a lot of pictures…). Rory claimed he just gave the bus a sweep out, but we could hardly believe it because there was Red sand lying all over the place… We took the bus back to camp where the swags and sleeping bags were still drying, and after some delicious tosti’s on the barbie (BBQ) we had to pack them all and put them in the trailer. On the background we could hear the Camel Cup (just unnecessary information…). We went, all pretty cooked, back in the bus. Our next stop was our camp in Kings Canyon. Instead of the wet swags Rory arranged us all an tent, and after unpacking the trailer and building up our outdoor kitchen Mike, Cosimo, Marco, Chris and I went to take a look at the local pub. Rory was making a great curry in the meantime, which we ate with great love and appetite. After some great conversation around our small gaslight we went to bed satisfied and fulfilled from the day, and we slept like babies.
Jeez I’m close to reaching 5 A4 papers long on this story and this is just a week… Can you now understand why I unfortunately postpone typing my blog…? In the meantime while writing this blog Lucky is trying to put her nails into my body, she wants a walk…
The last day of our Groovy Grape tour and family had arrived. Calling a group with whom you are travelling for a while “family” is and old aboriginal tradition and I kinda like it. I woke up by Kieran’s phone alarm. After breakfast we knew the drill of repacking everything again, and in the bus it was a short drive towards Kings Canyon where we would do a walk… We walked up “Heart attack hill” (name comes from the steepness) and took pictures on top of the canyon. Then we had a lovely walk around the canyon. On one of the bridges Mike did an imitation of Gandalf (You should see his hat… It looked pretty accurate) and Amelia did an imitation of The Lion King on one of the rock formations. After a quick rest at a water hole we had some more walk to do. A bit up and down… Along some very steep cliffs. We were not allowed any closer then 2 meters to the cliff cause there were some severe accidents last year. The walk ended with a long staircase down towards the parking lot, and the steps were carved into the rocks. When we all arrived at the bus we were pretty hungry so we decided for an early lunch. Everything was allowed to be emptied, and this was one of the first tours there was actually food left on the last day. So after we all filled our stomachs it was time to go. A long drive was waiting for us we had to go all the way towards Alice Springs and that would be the end destination of this tour. We stopped at the service station where we stopped a few days before as well. We decided to buy a gift for Rory and it was a sign with the text “I’m too sexy for this car”. He absolutely loved it! During this stop there were some aboriginal artist coming into the bus to try and sell there art work. I would have loved to buy one but unfortunately I didn’t. (And I still regret that!) We all knew we had one last stop left… The Camel farm! There’re a lot of camels in Australia. Even so many that some Arabian countries import their camels from Australia. They are not native to Australia, but were introduced around the 1900’s and they went like rabbits in this climate. But they were handy for travelling this big and dry country. Unfortunate this camels weren’t able to line-dance either, but we were allowed to ride them. For the people who know me a bit… I’m allergic to cattle as hell. But after taking my antihistamines I should be fine. And I was! A part from the fact that my stirrup broke halfway the ride. But we (Kieran and I) survived! And after a family picture with the camels we had to go back in the bus for the last driving part towards Alice Springs. Alice Springs is the most familiar city of nowhere. Cause it is in the middle of nowhere. It might be in middle of Darwin and Adelaide but that’s it… Rory had lost a bit of his sense of navigating in the city. Because it took him a while before he had found all the hostels. A lot of the family members stayed in Haven but we promised to met that night at Monte’s for dinner. So after a quick check in, drop off, shower and redressing. We all want to monte’s for a lovely pub dinner. It was very sociable. After Monte’s Rory insisted going to the Rockbar for some drinks, for a sunday night it was not very busy but we still had the rest of the family. After a while we all had enough (a part from Cosimo and Amelia) so we went back to our hostel. A soon as my head touched the pillow I fell a sleep… Until Amelia and Cosimo came in and Amelia did shake me awake. “Jop, Jop wake up…?” “What’s wrong?” “Nothing just wanted to say Hi!!”
This was the first week of my Red Centre travel… The second week I’m gonna start typing them but I’m not sure when I’ll put those stories online… Maybe it’s gonna be a novel one day
Cheers!!
Joppy
