Whitsundays

After the rocky (or should I say wavy) start in Cairns, we should have been forewarned when we reached to the Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsundays. However we had booked a sailing cruise to Whitehaven beach and the sun rose and day broke over a beautiful morning in Airlie Beach so we thought that all would be ok. Ha!

We climbed on board the Ragamuffin, which had apparently won several famous sailing races in Australia, a really big, proper sailboat, with a real mast and sails and everything. The crew seemed very proud to be sailing her and rattled off loads of stats and interesting tid bits of info about the craft, all in sailing speak.
Instead of being distracted by Johan showing off his muscles hoisting the sail, I probably we should have been listening a bit more intently to the other instructions being given out because soon after she started off and headed out of the harbour we realised that sailboats sail on their side and this particular sailboat was sailing on the side that we were on. Oops. This just meant that we sat there, at an almost 45 degree angle, hanging on for dear life. At least the seas weren't that rough... Carefully we made our way to the other side of the boat and found a spot that wasn't too precarious. The estimated sailing time to our destination was 2 1/2 hours so we settled down, got chatting to some of the others on board, and determined to enjoy the ride.

After a short while, we got a quick lesson on sailing words and discovered what tack meant (no, not just the swedish for thanks). That the winds had changed and they needed to move the sail (or something) and all of a sudden, the boat would be sailing on it's other side. So of course we all had to scramble over to the other side of the boat and prepare for the 45 degree angle on that side. All very exciting and exactly what we expected. All was good, I had taken my car-sickness tablets and even the ominous clouds on the horizon were not going to dampen my spirits.

Tell that to the sailing gods who have taken a real dislike to me. Turns out, to get to the particular patch of beach that was our destination, we had to sail through some real seas which had recently been stirred up with rain and high winds probably coming down from Cairns. A challenge to the crew, a disaster for my stomach. For the next eternity (actually probably about an hour and a half), we travelled up and down with the waves, getting totally wet from the sea, clinging on to the deck of the boat, secure in the knowledge that sitting below deck would be much worse.

The bay that our target beach was in was a welcome relief from the waves and we jumped on the first dingy to take us to shore. To feel solid ground below me... I wondered how we would possibly make the journey back.

Whitehaven beach is beautiful. Several kilometres of beautiful, white sand framed by natural Aussie beach vegetation. We had a picnic on the benches and some of the guys kicked around a football while others relaxed on the sand or took a walk, like we did. Really lovely, pity we walked with the Damocles sword of the trip back hanging over us...

We shouldn't have worried though. What they don't tell you is that when you're sailing against the waves (as we were doing on our way to the beach) then all is rough, but when you are sailing with the waves, as we did on the way back, even though the waves are the same height, it's smooth sailing. The trip back was a breeze. Well, not really, but in comparison with the way there, it was all good. So, maybe I won't "never" sail again, but I have to admit that I've never really had a good sailing experience. Please don't see that as a challenge, I still prefer terra firma any day.

We decided not to go out on the boat the following day, instead we hung around Airlie beach and did what backpackers there do. Sat by the lagoon, read books, tried the local smoothies and discovered what a book exchange was. A nice gentle day which was just what we needed in anticipation of our all nighter Greyhound bus ride. As we hopped on the bus at 6pm we were sad to leave Airlie beach, maybe if we'd had more time we would have gone back out again and got our sea legs and explored some of the many Whitsunday islands. Maybe next time...

Carins

After leaving the red centre and incredible drought and heat we landed in Cairns in the middle of tropical storms, that would apparently keep on raging for another couple of days. So quite a change and a little bit worrying as our plans were to hit the Great Barrier Reef, which would probably not be as enjoyable in the middle of one of those, besides the day we arrived most tours were cancelled. We decided to catch up on our sleep a little and not attempt a tour the following day, and use the day to plan our trip down the east coast.

In Cairns and the region around it, as it turns out, there are enough things to see and do for months, to the north there are fantastic scenic and cultural areas, to the east there is the Reef. Those areas seem to occupy most travellers agendas, but we only had one day of excursions planned after we spent a day surveying and adjusting to the new climate. So if you are in Cairns for one day only you really have to go to the Reef - so we hopped on a motorised cruiser which would allow us to spend more time there than a sailing cruise would. At the crack of 7.30 in the morning we boarded, were handed coffee and breakfast, a quick safety briefing which ranks in my personal top three. They even pointed out the emergency exits - on an open top boat. Nothing if not thorough.

After a slightly rocky ride (I did mention the tropical storms, didn't I?) to the reef we stopped just off a tiny sand quay which we were supposed to be the first one on this morning. But someone else had rewritten the script and had decided to have an early morning wedding on that little patch of sand, so we didn't really mind not being the first ones there. There were just enough space for the happy couple, the priest and a handful of witnesses, and once they were done they retreated to their catamaran and sat there for most of the morning sipping champagne. Now that is not a bad way to do it.

Back on the script though, we spent a few hours there snorkeling around the various coral reefs around with our tour guides explaining a lot about the types of coral, the fish and other aquatic animals that live around there. They also swam around with us and pointed them out, in what they called their 'office' - I'm sure I wasn't the only one jealous. On that particular day we saw clownfish, turtles, stingrays (only small ones) and about a million other types of small fish in their office. Once we'd seen all of them we cast off towards a different part of the reef that was farther away from the coast. Apparently the marine life gets more interesting and bigger the farther out you go, so we spent a little bit longer there. In total about three hours including a really good lunch at what they called 'the big wall'. Unfortunately we could not see any reef sharks there, which is a small harmless type of shark that lives among the coral, which is a shame. But we did get to swim around large schools of fish and here we spotted parrot fish, unicorn fish and at least a dozen more that I cant remember the name of.

Sadly though, we had to head back to shore way too soon, but fortunately the ride back in was alot less choppy. After a nice dinner at a Balinese restaurant which looked nice passing by (which was confirmed on arrival when they asked us for our reservation and looked troubled at our lack of one...) we headed for an early night in preparation for our marathon bus ride to Airlie beach and the Whitsundays where more marine adventures are awaiting.

Keep you posted...

Big Rock

The day we had been waiting for finally arrived. After seeing it from afar and debating the best way to approach Uluru, we finally decided to start the day at 8am by going along on a free walk given by one of the rangers of the park then continue to walk around the base of the rock. This turned out to be both a good and a bad idea.


The Ranger walk was fascinating, he told us that along with Kata Tjuta, the rock had special significance to the indigenous people and that there were many teaching stories that were told at various points there and around the rock to the younger boys and girls of their peoples. Our guide himself had been working with the indigenous people for 3 years and had only just begun to hear some of the stories. Some he could share with us, which he did, and others he could not. He showed us an area of aboriginal art which had been used in the teaching and explained some of the history of the rock up until it's present day function. The walk finally ended, 2 hours later, at a surprise waterhole just by the rock. I found it very interesting to learn something of this place.

However, it did mean that we didn't get to start our hike around the rock until around 10:30 (of course I needed to go to the loo and there was only one there) which means that it was already starting to get a bit hot and would only getting hotter. Still we were determined so armed with our frozen 2 litre water bottle, some sandwiches and snacks, we started on the 12 km (ish) hike around Uluru.

From a distance, it is easy to dismiss Uluru as one big lump of rock in the desert. Of course, in some ways that is exactly what it is, but don't think that it is uniform and uninteresting all around because that would be far from the truth. There are lots of little nooks and crannies, big formations and small, ones that we could photograph and others that we were respectfully asked not to. The first part of the walk was the least interesting, the last bit, when the heat really hit was the most difficult but the whole thing was totally worth it.

Not a bad way to spend our last day in the red centre. Tomorrow, we give back our car and board a flight to the polar opposite of the desert, the tropics by the see. Tomorrow we go to Cairns, home of the great barrier reef and where we had heard, there was rain!

Outback Part 3

So, you last left us listening to some music at the Ayers Rock resort (still so named despite the renaming of the actual rock to Uluru... I guess there are probably lots of legal reasons etc. why).

The next day we got up nice and late and headed for the Olgas, or Kata Tjuta as they are now named. A holy site for the indigenous people as we found out the following day, and not one that women are meant to look at too intently. We were planning to do the whole 6km hike but when we got there we discovered that the track was closed part of the way due to extreme conditions - that's temperatures in excess of 36 C. I guess they don't want stupid tourists going out there and endangering themselves and stretching the resources of their mountain rescue units!

We bumped into a Japanese guy that we had met at the resort earlier and walked with him, I think that he wanted to do the whole walk and was disappointed when we decided to turn back. We left him there and suspected that he went back and did the walk. We did see him later so we were relieved that he had survived!

We still managed to do two other shorter walks (1 h each) so there was plenty to see.
The pictures say it all though...

The highlight of the day though was the "Sounds of silence" dinner that we went to that evening. Billed as a dinner in the desert with only the stars and the sounds of nature (and the didgeridoo) it was everything it claimed to be. First we were picked up at the resort and taken out into the desert and deposited beside a small sand dune with a viewing platform on top. There we were served a champagne reception with yummy canapes of kangaroo, crocodile and salmon while we watched the sun set with a fantastic view of both Uluru and the Kata Tjutas. We met a lovely older couple whose kids were grown so they sold their house and decided to go on a whirlwind trip of the world. More power to them, I hope that we do the same when we're their age!!

After the sun set, we were led down from the platform to the desert floor below where several tables were set out. We ended up sitting and chatting with the couple we met during the dinner and enjoyed a delicious three course dinner. This was a particularly nice change from the pasta we had been cooking and eating every night for the last week!!

After dinner there was a performance by a guy on a digeridoo and a demonstration/explaination of the night sky - the stars were fantastic and very clear. A really lovely day and night.

Outback Part 2

Just sitting outside and listening to an old Aussie bloke strumming his guitar on the little stage at the Pioneer bar in Ayers Rock resort. It's been a few days since we last wrote a post and it's not because nothing has happened, rather, it's more a reflection of the price and availability of Internet access in this country! [again we apologise for the lack of pictures for a different reason this time]

So a recap...

Coober Pedy was a bit of an odd place. Situated conveniently between Adelaide and Alice Springs, its claim to fame is that it is where a large number of opals have been found so now every man and his dog there has opal-fever. There are mounds of desert earth everywhere where miners have blown holes in the earth in their search. We stayed in the oddest possible backpacker hostel, it was located two stories underground, dug out of the limestone rock which means that it was also incredibly cool even with the 40 degree temperature outside. Beautiful, but strange... a bit like the hobbit-like owner...

We didn't stay there too long though, we were up early the next morning and set off for our first destination in the red centre - Kings Canyon. Why, I can hear you ask, didn't we go to the most famous big rock first? Well, we are flying out of Ayers Rock airport to Cairns on Sunday, so we thought we'd do the sights around first and then head to the main attraction.

The trek up there was uneventful, if beautiful. We've met several people before we set out who have described their journey to the red centre as indescribably dull but we didn't think so. The scenery, vegetation, the views of the straight roads going on for miles and miles where so different from anything that either of us had ever seen before that we were enthralled. There were funky rock formations, red sand dunes, weird looking trees, random road kill, a 130 km/h speed limit. We also met a lot of fellow backpackers and campers with fascination stories of where they had been and where they were going.

We got to Kings Canyon just after 7pm and booked ourselves into their self-catering lodge. Then discovered that no kitchen utensils were provided and that we would have to rent them from the petrol station that had just closed. So, sandwiches for us that night then :(

After three days driving we felt that we needed a rest day, so we decided to spend the next day at the pool just relaxing and chatting to the other travellers that had the same plan. Yes there was a pool in the middle of the desert, a real treat so this counts as a lovely day in our book :)

And this leads up up to today. After doing nothing yesterday, we decided that for balance we needed to do the most extensive (6k) walk around the rim of Kings Canyon and in order to avoid the blistering heat, we woke up early, packed our stuff into the car, checked out and headed to the Canyon. The walk did turn out to be blisteringly hot but only at the end and we were prepared with our hats, lots of water, our cameras and for me, my trusty fly shield. A masterpiece of engineering because those flies are something to be reckoned with! To put it mildly, Kings Canyon is stunning. Its at the end of the McDougall range which is a mountain range that stands out in a normally flat, featureless scene, like Uluru. So it is quite impressive in itself, but when you get up there and see the steep cliff faces of the huge canyon in the middle... takes your breath away. Then the flies get in which takes away some of the wonder which is why you need fly nets... but it is truly beautiful. The walk, with all its various stops took us just over three hours so just after midday we got back to our car and headed on.

No, even though they look just next to each other on the map, Kings Canyon and Ayers Rock are actually about 3 hours drive away from each other. So here we are, sitting down in the outside eating area at the Ayers Rock resort, listing to an old Aussie guy strumming away at his guitar.

Heading into the Outback

"No wireless networks were found in range" said our trusty netbook as we booted it up in the caravan park cabin we finally found in Pt. Augusta which provided us with a reasonably priced room with cooking facilities for the night. Well, it's no wonder, we are on the fringes of the Outback of Australia so it's probably something that we will just have to get used to over the next week as we travel through the red centre.

After a lovely service at Trinity Church in Adelaide we picked up our car which would be our constant companion for the next 7 days. It is a dinky little Ford Focus with no 4-WD (to Johan's dismay) but air conditioning which (thankfully) works very well. We had considered getting a GPS system however the nice lady at the car rental place assured us that there was only one road which would take us to Uluru and that it was fairly impossible to get lost. So we saved a few dollars there and went for a comprehensive insurance instead, packed our rucksacks into the back and headed north.

Our first day of driving took us from Adelaide to Pt Augusta and between the two is lots of wide open spaces. There was one occasion where we saw a lake on our right hand side which looked a bright pink colour - then we took off our sunglasses and realised that it was just a very light pink shade. The drive on Sunday took around 4 hours and ended in a tiny port town with a big history. As we found out this morning when we visited the Waldata Outback centre, over Australia's history, many men have headed out from Pt. Augusta on exploration expeditions in search of lakes, arable land, anything other than what they eventually had to admit covered most of the centre of the last continent - desert.

And more desert is what we found during monday's drive. For six long hours we saw only desert and flies. About a billion of them, so as soon as we stopped and opened a window or a door, the car was full of them. Where do they come from and Why are they here?? There is only about one car every 10 minutes passing by, so tourists cant be their main source of food...

The scenary is amazing though, expecially as we came closer to Coober Pedy and the small trees gave way to smaller shrubbery that allowed us to see further into the vast expance that is the red centre and also allowed us to see just how red the centre actually is. Though we expect it to become even redder tomorrow. And along the way there were a few dry salt lakes which were woth a stop, a quick aaaawwww in the scorching heat and a few quick snaps then back into the car and try to try to clear it of flies.

Tomorrow, we'll be heading into the very heart of Australia, hopefully we'll pick up a signal there.

Barossa valley Wine tasting

Just north of Adelaide is the Barossa Valley, mainly famous for its fantastic red wines and also the fact that this is where Jacob's Creek and Wolf Blass wine come from. Now, we're not saying that these wines are bad, they make some fantastic wines there too, but they rarely gets shipped, and the ones that are are priced fairly comfortably inside the high-to-extortionate region. We chose to do an organised one day tour, based on our limited time in this huge country, but given more time it would have been fantastic to stay at bed and breakfasts in the valley and hop between them at a leisurely pace. But that does not mean we had a bad experience, quite the opposite, the organised tour features a very well informed driver who during the drive first gave a brief history of the settlement of Adelaide by the British. He then went on to the world wars and the influx of people from mainly Germany and Italy and how the Germans settled the Barossa valley and started to grow wine. This history lesson was great and not something you'd have easily picked up on your own by chatting to the locals.

The tour was scheduled to stop at four vineyards, the first one, "Kiels", the driver oddly labeled as a cafe where you could also try their wine in their cellar door. We prioritised the wine and while the others piled into the cafe for morning tea and a piece of cake we started chatting with the owner and judging by the newspaper clippings on display she was an award winning wine maker. We tried their reds on display and were very impressed by their three Sihraz wines but were blown away by their Ports (or fortified Wines they now have to label it). Obviously the locals are too, since when we were standing there sipping our samples a man and a woman came in to restock their port supply. They returned four two-litre empties and bought four new ones, at roughly $6.50 a litre. That is roughly 40 SEK or £3.50. And remember this was no cheap tasting plonk but some of the best port wine we have ever tasted. As we were standing there saying, 'now that is the way to buy wine, just go to the local award winning vineyard and get it straight from the casks' the owner and the customers were happily chatting away about how early summer has come and other little bits of local news. As they were about to leave she stuffed a bottle of their mid-range white into the bags and said something along the lines of 'stick this in the fridge as well, it will cool you down nicely'.
We need more vineyards and less strict alcohol regulations in Sweden I think...

After popping into the cafe to get our coffee and cake we got on the bus and headed to Langmeil vineyard, where we were met by a cousin of the family run vineyard with a history of over 120 years. Not the same family as when it started though. This visit started out with a little history about the vineyard itself and a 15 minute talk on what makes a great wine, which all boiled down to : its all in the vines. He was talking very enthusiastically about how the best quality wines come from grapes from old vines, and how the industrial sized production of the larger vineyards destroys the vines early, after only 30 years. In smaller scale vineyards on the other hand, where the vines are pruned manually they can last for hundreds of years, though they will yield less and less grapes as time passes. After a quick visit into the fields to see these old vines in the blazing sun, we headed inside to sample the goods, and it was truly amazing. They had a huge selection and we dove straight into the heavy reds section of the list, that is after all the reason we came to this particular area. They had a great Grenache wine and a couple of Grenache/Shiraz blends that were really really nice (all for around or under $15 a bottle). The masterpieces though were the Shiraz wines they make of their really old vines, we liked them so much we had to buy a bottle from the top shelf to consume in a few years time.

After our splurge we went on to a vineyard, who's name escapes us both, for a lunch of very tasty Kangaroo steak and Sticky Date (toffee) pudding, and some more wine of course. This one was nestled in a stunning setting with fields dropping off a hill and with the valley peaks far in the distance. Absolutely gorgeous, but you'll see that in the photo... The wines however, though very nice and incredibly drinkable, did not reach the heights of the previous two. They did had a sparkling red that was quite good though which some of the ladies on the tour were raving about, but that was as far as it went.



After that it was time to go to a big one the biggest actually - Wolf blass, who can bottle a staggering 26'000 bottles an hour apparently. This tasting was more organised and held at their large visitors centre, which obviously cater for a lot of visitors. There was a menu and the guy behind the counter was explaining each wine and each one was more 'delicious', 'beautiful', 'rich' and 'full-bodied' than the last. We were treated to a few of their upper ranges of wines though, the ones above the yellow and red labels, that doesn't make it across to Europe. Though these were quite good, we still preferred the small scale wines we tasted before lunch, though some of the people on the tour did pay a little extra to try a sample from the top ($150 a bottle) range and they claimed that it was the best of the bunch, all day. I do believe them, we seemed to have very similar taste throughout the day, but $150 a bottle is quite a steep price, no matter how nice it is, so I think on our budget we are better off without that temptation. Besides, we already had our splurge bottle safely tucked away in our bag.


The next day we spent roaming around the town in the morning and happened upon the finish of the Global Green challenge, where university students make and drive Solar-powered vehicles from Darwin to Adelaide, through the red Centre (on the very road we are driving on as I am typing this). We lounged around the area for a while and listened to their stories and as they explained to others in the know about how they had built their cars, which solar cells they are using, voltage etc, etc. It is really extraordinary what these guys are doing, they travelled from Darwin to Adelaide in three days, roughly the same time we'll make in our car and reached speeds of over 100 Km/hr and its all built by hand by undergrads. Though there were stories like 'are you using those batteries? Oh, we were going to but one exploded and nearly took our car with it, so we decided not to...', so while we might not go out and buy one tomorrow, it is certainly a thing of the near future. Once our inquisitive minds were at ease we hopped on a bus and went to Tennyson beach, which is a little bit out of the way and less populated. This was a Saturday after all, so we expected a minor invasion of the more accessible beaches. An added benefit of this beach is that it has a lot of sand dunes lining the back of it which makes it not only extremely beautiful but you can also find shelter from the wind, unless it is blowing straight in of course. The water was still cold but in the 30+ heat it was just perfect and it gave us a stunning sunset. We count this as another day well spent in Oz.

While on the beach we decided to hire a car and drive up to Uluru, since we have until next Sunday (a full week!!) until we fly out to Cairns. So at this moment, are driving to Pt Augusta through vast farmland which definitely reminds us that space is not something that Australia is lacking (the farms are huge, roughly the size of countries like, say Singapore!!). This will be a quick stopover and maybe a visit to the Wodlata outback centre in the morning, which apparently is a great Aboriginal culture experience.

Adelaide has treated us very well, but we are quite excited about our road-trip so we are leaving with a smile on our faces.