14th & 15th February 2010 After our 5 days in the outback we spent the whole of Sunday just chilling, catching up on some sleep, getting clean and getting our clothes clean, venturing out just for food. Monday was our last day in Alice Springs and the morning was spent checking emails and booking accommodation, travel and tours for the next stage of our trip. We were leaving for Darwin that evening and would need a hotel for Tuesday night. ...
16th February 2010 We both had a much better night’s sleep than on our previous Ghan journey with room to lie down and the train rocking us gently to sleep, before we knew it we were awoken by the train manager announcing the first breakfast sitting (for gold and platinum customers). Overnight we passed through the remote mining town of Tennant Creek and were well on our way to Katherine where the outback meets the tropics. The landscape had become even greener and there were loads more trees and pools of standing water. ...
9th February 2010 Up before the sun this morning to meet the 4WD tour bus which was to take us on our five day outback tour. There are 16 of us on the tour in all and what a mixed group we are, British, German, French, Swiss, New Zealanders, Dutch and of course our Aussie tour guide Paul. So, off we set towards Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Our first stop was the camel farm at Stuarts Well. Australia is the biggest exporter of camels in the world and also has the largest population of wild camels in the world. This was our first indication of not only the heat we would be encountering over the next 5 days, but also the flies. I asked Paul if they were bad because of the animals here and he said they weren’t actually that bad and would get worse. He recommended some cream that was originally designed for horses to keep away the flies called Desert Dwellers but we couldn’t get any so I guess it’ll soon be time for the fly nets. We had the option of a camel ride around the paddock, but passed and instead went to see the baby camel along with the kangaroos and emus that were also at the farm. ...
12th February 2010 It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, words will have to do today since our walk was going to involve a swim through a gorge in order to complete it. Not an ideal environment for electronic equipment, hence no cameras. Since we have been surgically attached to our camera for the past 5 months, it was oddly liberating to leave it behind for a morning and drink in the beauty of Ormiston Pound and Ormiston Gorge with only our eyes, relying on our memory to capture the moment instead. ...
13th February 2010 Bright sunshine greeted us this morning which was our most relaxing yet. After last night’s late night we slept in until we were woken by the sun, then Paul cooked bacon and eggs, plus the flies who had clearly missed us last night during the rainstorm and were all over us like a rash this morning. While we were eating breakfast, Robbie, the Aboriginal guy whose land we camped on last night came down and had a coffee with us around the fire. Usually his son takes us on a walk and explains about the culture and history, but he has had to go to Tennant Creek where his daughter was in a bus accident last night. Also, the walk we normally take is impossible to do today as the roads have been washed out by the floods. ...
7th & 8th February 2010 The last time I visited Australia ten years ago, I elected to do an outback tour from Adelaide to Alice Springs via Coober Pedy instead of taking the Ghan. While I don’t regret this decision for a moment, I’ve always still wanted to take one of Australia’s most famous journeys. In the end, it has worked out for the best because ten years ago, I would only have been able to get as far as Alice as the last section of the Ghan from Alice to Darwin has only been completed in 2004. So finally, we’re taking this epic journey on the longest north to south railway line in the world. ...