Oz's Red Center

Nothing like ending my year by uber super mondo way way way procrastination. Yanno, like, this post.

On the 6th of December I flew to Alice Springs from Cairns, and began a three-day tour of Australia's Red Center the following day. The tour itself was mostly marketed toward the backpacker crowd. You can infer that we had many luxuries. Your inference would be wrong. 21 passengers in a 21-passenger bus, pulling probably 8 hours a day in said bus, sleeping under the stars, battling ants, 40 degree Celsius daytime temps, and picnic'd meals. It was a little rough around the edges but it was good times, and by the end we were one big "United Colors of Benetton" family.

As with most things on a grand scale, the pictures from Kings Canyon in no way represent its vastness. This shot does not show off its beauty either but I was hoping to provide some slight idea of scale with the human folk in it.

They say it almost never, ever, ever rains in the outback. Well it rained when we were looking for firewood. And then that night at camp it started to rain once I got into my sleeping bag. I thought I'd ride out the rain, how much can it rain, after all? Well my swag and sleeping bag starting soaking through and I called quits to head for the covering (where the ants were worse).

Our second day took us to Kata Tjuta (pronounced Kotta Joota) for a 7 kilometer hike that would take us through the Valley of the Winds. Once again, the scale and the beauty of this place is lost through my index finger and shutter.

 The actual Valley of the Winds. Quite windy as you'd expect.

Later that same day, we explored Uluru a bit. We camped overnight nearby and were up before sunrise in order to watch the rock greet the day. We had a sunrise breakfast then we trekked off to hike the perimeter of the monolith.

IMAGINE the size of this rock! And while you are at it IMAGINE that Sarah could figure out a way to get these three pictures in a row vice stacked.

Only two water holes around that whole big rock.

Original Aboriginal drawings in an open-sided cave. This is only about a 1/3 of them in this specific cave, they ran about 15 feet long and 6 feet tall.

21 tour takers: an American (me!), a Brit, a Canadian, an Aussie, 3 Koreans, 2 Thais, 2 Dutchies, 2 Fins, 3 Mexicans, 1 Japanese, 1 Italian, 1 Spaniard, 1 Frenchie, and a German. Our tour guide was, as you'd expect, an Aussie.

Ooh, Alice.

Flew to Alice Springs on December 6th from Cairns. If you don't know, Alice Springs is in almost the very center of Australia. Flying in, looking out at the red red dirt and the open open land, I was reminded of a t-shirt I saw once about Cheyenne, Wyoming that said "Cheyenne: it's not the end of the world (but you can see it from here)" - Alice Springs is an old telegraph station that managed to live on as the largest town in the middle of far flung mining sites. Almost everything about The Alice reminded me of Southwest Wyoming- the landscape, the people, the hard scrabble existence, the beautiful sunsets. The biggest downside to Alice was that my hostel was,,,,,mmmn, er,,,,, it had a lot of character. What it did NOT have was air con. Temps well over a hundred during the day, and hardly below 90 at night.

 Some views from ANZAC hill. As hard as it is to believe, these pictures are, indeed, Alice Springs and not Sweetwater County, Wyoming.

 The actual ANZAC memorial.

 The aboriginal significance of the hill. You go, arragutye alknarintye.

 Lastly, sunset.

I Be Trib'ing

Captain Cook didn't like Cape Tribulation; that's why he named it that. Apparently that's where all that voyage's troubles started. Only about 60 kilometers north of Port Douglas, my home for a few days, I ventured up there today. It's a tropical rainforest and unique in Australia in that the rainforest goes all the way down to the beach. The road warnings, the croc warnings, the endangered species warnings, the verbal warnings about suddenly changing weather, the welcoming name of Mount Sorrow- all these meant that I had a superb day! It was slightly cloudy, but there was a breeze, hardly anyone up there. I had a good lunch, the drive was fine, and I got some pretty little coral pieces when I beachcombed. I may or may not have broken the law by beachcombing. I seriously don't know.

Welcome to Cape Trib!

Diving the Great Barrier Reef

In 2006 I got my PADI dive certification. I have SCUBA'd exactly zero times since then. Frankly, snorkeling is as enjoyable and a lot less hassle and math. Coming to the far northeast coast of Australia, however, made me rethink my SCUBA indifference. It is the Great Barrier Reef. So I opted for a day trip with Quicksilver Cruises and signed up for the 3-dive option. I'm glad I did. The water was warm, the visibility was awesome, the wildlife was abundant, the corals vibrant (can't tell in the pics, of course) and it was one of those moments in life when you keep thinking, "I can't believe I'm doing this!"

On the 3d of December, I boarded a 45 meter Catamaran along with about 25 other people and we pushed out about 8:30. Got to the first dive site about an hour and a half later. Had a 45 minute dive around a large pillar type coral- saw a rather large shark as well. It was hanging on the bottom and I was alright with it till I saw it start to move, then I got a little weirded out. But it just clung to the bottom.

These little blue thingies, like super fancy pipe cleaners were fun because if you waggled your hand in front of them they'd pop inside themselves. Some corals that were at least 10 meters high were positively covered in these things.

That's me! 

Second dive had a somewhat domesticated fish that the crew has named George. George is slow moving, big eyed, as big as an adult human and very loving. It leans into you to get you to pet it. It's like a dog.

Me petting George. 

George moving on in the hopes of finding somebody with a snack.

The third dive had stingrays, lots of them. No pictures of those. Most of them hung to the bottom but one started to swim around and appeared to be circling me and all that was going through my head was: STEVE IRWIN!

Another bold fish. This one was not friendly like George but obviously quite curious about the camera. It was probably 4 feet long and quite hefty looking from other angles.

I didn't feel as intense as I look.

My Northern Destination: Port Douglas

Advice I received in Canberra was spot on: go past Cairns and hit Port Douglas instead. I pulled into town on the first day of summer: December 1st. And I've been homesteading a bit. (I head out tomorrow for Cairns.) I pulled 3900 kilometers on my little rental car; plan to do a roadtrip roundup post later, complete with my route. But, for now, Port Douglas'  Four Mile Beach in the late afternoon.

Zigging and Zagging up a Mountain

On the day I left Airlie Beach (Nov 30th), I planned to check out and stay the night at Paluma- a little mountain town with a stream and swimming holes. Well let me tell you about this road: the devil was the engineer and he was in a bad mood. 22 steep kilometers of hairpin turns on a misty road designed for 2 mopeds to just barely pass one another. Oh, and Mack-type trucks heading the other direction. I am one to take pictures from behind the wheel but even this was too hairy for me. Less than half way up, there was a cute little stone bridge and swimming pools. I thought these were harbingers of more wonderful mountain delights further up. I was wrong. I drove the rest of the way to the town of Paluma, hoping my family would find my last will and testament in my super secure rubbermaid bin, only to find, essentially, a ghost town. And it was really misty/foggy, and really quiet and reminded me somewhat of the solitude of the hotel in The Shining. The inn was unattended. So much for spending the night there.

But I drove back down and stopped at the real attraction of Paluma, the bridge and swimming holes that I had passed. The water was cool. The rain was light. Only bummer was I didn't bring anything for a picnic and I had to get back on the road and find that night's accommodations. Onward ho!

Picture taken from the car- it was raining really hard although you can't tell in this picture.

This bridge was built during the 1930s, as part of a New Deal-era type public works. I assume it was a global depression.

With a name like Rainbow Beach.....

.....I thought it'd be more rainbow-y.

Although it was very beautiful. That's Fraser Island out in the distance.

Then I understood the rainbow name. This large hill alternates colors for probably 3 to 4 kilometers down the beach. (Can you spot the paragliders?)

My Second WWOOFing Gig: Tilba Tilba

(Another catch up post from earlier this month.)

I WWOOFed in Tilba Tilba (about 100 km SE of Canberra as the crow flies) from November 8th to the 15th. Just a week. Not long enough, I can tell you. The daily tasks were mostly grounds maintenance. The downside to the work were leaches, and the love of roses by my host, Tanmaya. I'd never seen so many varied types of thorns. But they saw me.

The landscape around the place was absolutely stunning as the pictures show. The pace of life around the house was ideal- work up till lunch, have time to eat and get cleaned up then either nap or lay in the sun or read or sit around the living room and talk about whatever comes to mind.

I really enjoyed my time in Tilba Tilba, and cannot thank Tanmaya and Roger enough. I only WWOOFed two spots in Australia but my experience leads to me wholeheartedly recommend it as a way to see and experience a place- getting to know people and seeing life in a different light.

Roger built the gate that leads to the house.

With all the plants around the house, this is about the clearest shot you can get of the house. 

I'm posting this picture because I simply adored the little shrub on the right- the one that looks grassy. In fact, it FELT grassy. Like grass on limbs.

View off the back porch. 

Tanny's love is roses but I was captivated by this beautiful little flower. 

Hi Roger! Hi Tanny!