NB - You may need to refer to the key at the bottom of this entry to understand this post.
G'day mates,
It's been yonks since I wrote - so here's the rest of my Ozzie news. ..
After the delights of The Whitsundays and a rather alcoholic farewell to Airlie Beach, shouting each other XXXX and knocking back a few schooners of VB then dodging the pash seshing couples in the clubs, I got moving again and skipped a wee way up the coast to Townsville, port to Magnetic Island. Set in a lush tropical climate and speckled liberally with palm and eucalyptus trees and koalas, Magnetic was perfect on the night I arrived there. As the beaut of a sun set on a tranquil sea, the cotton wool clouds above were lit up with a lovely rosy pink. The sound of cicadas and occasional lizards scurrying across the floor made the atmosphere calm yet quirky - even one curious possum came to check us out while we watched the sun go down! When the sunset ended, though, the sky melted into a deep blue, and a blood-orange moon rose up over the island opposite our hostel. It was so intense and rising so quickly we actually thought it was a bush fire! To intensify the scene we also had a power cut - a brilliant catalyst both for snapping a few good shots and for managing to procure idiotic accident-prone injury number 4: sprained big toe. Said injury occurred as follows: on the way to my comfy dorm and doona, looking forward to cozying up with a book and getting some shut eye, I unfortunately managed to smash my big toe on some unlevel ground, causing sickening pain and an inability to walk. The following day I was ordered by the doctor to go back to Townsville to get x-rays. Which I did. And nothing, thankfully, was broken. But I still couldn't walk. I did buy myself lots of consolatory ice cream though. Always good. A good story, no?
Ok. So not a very happy ending to the Magnetic Island story. The next bit of story is much better though. It goes like this. Marian and Helen went to Cairns where they went out, danced, sung, had lots and lots of fun, ate ice cream, got lost frequently as all the streets looked the same, and went on a dive in the Great Barrier Reef. In the reef they swam with lots of pretty fishes and saw lots of coral and had a lovely day out. See - a much nicer story :-) Cairns was actually a rather nice place. It was very geared up for travelers, lined with bars and hostels, but the recent bad weather had made it very quiet. Nonetheless we really enjoyed the Cairns nightlife it - and particularly liked the reef snorkelling. We also made a trip up to Cape Tribulation, so called because Captain Cook managed to get his boat grounded on the reef, had lots of trouble getting it unstuck again, couldn't find much food on land, had a lot of agro from his shipmates and generally had a miserably few weeks. He named a nearby mountain Mount Sorrow too, so he really can't have been having a good time! Marian and I did have a good time though. We trekked through the rainforest by the Mosman Gorge, stayed in a gorgeous hostel where we chilled out all arvo by the pool in our swimmers, and ate heaps of Daintree Rainforest Fruit Ice Cream (very yummy). We also went to an animal sanctuary where we got to see crocodiles being fed, saw some snakes, and got to pet kangaroos, which were very cute indeed. As well as this, we cruised the daintree river too to spot crocs in the wild, and had a guided walk to spot frogs, golden orb spiders, see the mangrove plants and learn about the foods the aboriginals eat in the forest. After Cape Trib, we returned to Cairns for one last night on the goon before I left the lovely Marian to fly off to the Alice for my next adventure.
The flight itself to Alice Springs was pretty spectacular. From the aeroplane window I saw the lush rainforest landscape transform into the Big Red Centre of Australia. Watching the foliage disappear to reveal a rusty red desert, scored with veins from evaporated rivers and marked with the cracks of the bone dry earth, was magical. Alice Springs wasn't really too exciting - although the tour of Ayers Rock I did was fantastic! The first day we got up super early to drive down to the Rock, stopping only to fill our eskies with a few beers. And the Rock was fabulous. Its sheer scale is awesome, and the formations on the rock are beautiful and strangely captivating even in the 42 degree heat! Our guide showed us some of the aboriginal paintings at the base of Uluru and pointed out how they used the rock formations as hunting spots, kitchens and school rooms. As we are not part of aboriginal culture, however, only some of the stories of the rock were told to us. The secrets of their religion are well guarded and we could only know the tales told to children. Photos were prohibited in some areas too, meaning that some of the most sacred areas can only be seen if you go there yourself. The others in the group decided to hoof it round the base, while I rested up my sprained toe and chatted with the guide for a while. That evening we saw the Rock by sunset. Just experiencing it turn form red to orange, gold to yellow, silver to grey was mesmerising, but knowing just some the significance it has for aboriginal culture made me respect their belief that their ancestors reside there and made the evening indelibly etched to memory. It was such a stunner, in fact, that we hauled ourselves out of our swags at 4:45 am the following morning to catch the sun rise. Equally abso-bloody-lutely brilliant :-)
Day 2 and we headed off to Kata Tjuta, which translates as 'many heads'. There are 37 domes to Kata Tjuta, which tower out of the earth causing valleys in between. After a walk through the Valley of the Winds, we headed to Kings Creek Station to put some marshmallows on the barbie, experience the true outback by using bush dunnies (something we sheilas weren't hugely thrilled by), and count shooting stars from our swags under the milky way. Day 3 was perhaps my favourite, though. We went to Kings Canyon, a massive lots of rock formed like towering pancakes which was caused by an earthquakes thousands of years ago, and used to be under the sea. How exciting! In the middle of King's Canyon is a little pool named the Garden of Eden where we had a dip before carrying on on our journey. It's amazing to think that even in the middle of the desert there is water...and it really was beautiful - definitely worthy of being called Eden! At the end of the day we all returned to the Alice for a quick shower, a change of daks, and met up for an abso-bloody-lutely lovely last meal before we parted ways.
Last stop on the Ozzie tour: Melbourne. Melbourne was a refreshing change from being out in the sticks, and was a truly wonderful city. I immediately bonded with my friendly dorm mates by going out to dinner and catching the sunset from St. Kilda pier. We caught sight of a couple fo penguins in the rocks, then headed back to the hostel. The following day I explored the city, checking out the Queen Victoria Markets, snapping pics of Federation Square and Flinder's Street Station and catching a film in the open air cinema in the evening. The film was screened in the Botanical Gardens, and as the sun set and dusk drew in the flying foxes fled from the trees across the sky. The city lights in the distance were framed perfectly between a 'v' of trees either side of the screen, and as the stars came up and orion settled himself right above the city, Sweeney Todd began. It was brilliant: a brilliant setting for a brilliant film and a brilliant night of eating sweeties and watching Johnny Depp. Brilliant! My last day in Mlebourne was nice and simple -wandering round the WaterFest in town, going to the Nation Gallery of Victoria, getting some Cold Rock ice cream (the best in the world - you can choose any flavours and a baffling array of extras to add into it...divine) and catching my bus back to Sydney. No wukkers!
After a day in Sydney sorting out the exciting tasks of tax claims, dentist visits, stocking up on medications for Asia and catching up with friends, I said my goodbyes to Australia, went to the airport to catch a few winks before my 6am flight.....and now I am in.....Bali!!!!!!
Bali is beautiful. Bali is great. Bali is warm and sunny and chilled and cheap. I think I am in love with Bali :-) I am here for three weeks, so next time I hope to wax lyrical about Bali and Indonesia and make you all green with envy. Mwahahhaha.
Cheers dudes.
Much love
xxx
g'day- Australian version of hello
mate- friend
Sheila - girl
agro - annoyance, trouble
beaut - great, good thing
dunny - toilet
eski - cool box (from eskimo)
bathers/swimmers - swimsuit, bikini, shorts
arvo - afternoon
dunny - toilet
no wukkers - no worries - from 'no wucking furries'
stunner - really great
abso-bloody-lutely - absoultely (duh!)
hoof it - walk
barbie - barbecue
goon - boxed wine
XXXX - 4 x, type of Ozzie beer
VB - Victoria Bitter, Ozzie beer
pash - kissing
out in the sticks - in the outback
the outback - central Australia
heaps - lots
the Alice - Alice Springs
doona - duvet/quilt
dorm - dormitary
daks - trousers
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