AUSTRALIA - Red Centre & Adelaide

Our time traveling Australia has come and gone so quickly! Hence why we haven’t posted a blog update for a while. We do apologize for this and appreciate the accountability we have got from some people, wanting to know we are okay and what we have been up to.

We spent the five and a half weeks in the Centre and the East Coast of Australia and we are now currently in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur. Because there is so much to catch up on, we have divided this update into a couple parts.

MELBOURNE TO ADELAIDE

 

We spent our last night in Melbourne, our home of nine months, with our friend Megan visiting and playing Dance Central. A fun time but sad to say see ya later. Unfortunately our whole night wasn’t as enjoyable. Once we returned to our hostel for the night (we couldn’t check out of our rented place on the weekend) it was like walking into the twilight zone. Our room was cluttered, stinky and right beside the main street with all the nightlife action. We already had a couple sharing a bottom bunk but even with them aside it was overbooked. We encountered two people that got bed bugs but chose to stay at the hostel. The upstairs kitchen was packed with drunken backpackers smoking cigarettes and weed. Sure there were three festivals going on that weekend but that’s no excuse for the state of the hostel.

Needless to say we weren’t well rested for our travel day to Adelaide but I was thankful we were traveling by train which would be comfortable to nap on to recover from the night. 

We decided to travel the country by train because 1. It was actually the cheapest transportation option and 2. We thought it would be a relaxing way to get around.  Soo happy with our decision. It has been a great way to see the landscape, very comfortable with lots of legroom and reclining seats, and we were always able to travel on the days we wanted to (pre-booking the Centre, Adelaide and Sydney) as these services only traveled once a week).
 

We arrived safe and sound in Adelaide that evening. We only stayed there for the night and would be off again the next morning to Alice Springs but back again for a long weekend after our tour in the Centre. So we were excited when we found out that March is actually the best month to visit Adelaide with the Fringe (second largest in the world) and a few other annual festivals on. The evening was spent having supper, showering and heading to bed early in our clean and comfortable beds.

The train that operates from the south (Adelaide) to the north (Darwin) is called The Ghan and the entire line was actually only completed in 2004, believe it or not. It was such a relaxing and comfortable 24 hours. From the train we were able to spot an emu and kangaroo in the wild before a beautiful outback sunset.

Boarding The Ghan, over 700m long!

Outback sunset

  

ALICE SPRINGS / THE RED CENTRE

We arrived in Alice Springs around mid day to a hot dry temperature of 33 degrees with a max for the day of 36. Once we settled into our hostel we had a walk around town but just a short one because the heat was absolutely exhausting. Not to mention there wasn’t a very good vibe with barbed wire at the tops of most buildings’ and houses’ fences and walls and the separation and hostility of the aboriginals still very prominent. 

At the Alice Springs train station

Our hostel, Annie's Place. Notice the barbed wire I made reference to.

The main street in Alice Springs, Todd Street

DAY ONE - The next morning we were picked up from our hostel just after 6am for the start of our 3 day tour to the “Red Centre” (Uluru [Ayers Rock], Kata Tjuta [The Olgas] and Kings Canyon). After a couple pit stops our first official stop was at a camel farm. We thought it pretty odd until we learned that camels were brought over from the Middle East long ago to be used for carrying supplies while traveling in the outback and now Australia supposedly has more camels than the original places they came from. So we went for a short camel ride before continuing on our way. 

The sunrise we experienced while waiting for our tour bus to arrive

Ready for our camel ride

After that there weren’t any significant stops until lunch around 2pm. Once we cleaned up we had a bit of a wander around the cultural centre before starting our educational walk of Uluru at 3pm. Not the best timing on the tour’s part as this was the hottest part of the day with a temperature over 36 degrees. We were given the option of doing a shorter or longer walk around the base of Uluru but not a climb. Not only are you asked to respect the local aboriginals’ wishes and appreciate the sacredness of the Rock by not climbing but we wouldn’t have been able to anyway because you cannot climb when the temperature is over 36 degrees along with some other factors.

Where the climb begins

Overall view of Uluru. An actual photo Adrian took but it looks fake, doesn't it?

I opted to do the shorter walk while Adrian did the longer one. I was exhausted by the time I reached the bus while Adrian was just a bit hot and tired. I ended up getting heat stroke so the rest of the night was not enjoyable for me but I tried to take in the Uluru sunset as best as possible. I always have the photos to fall back on although they don’t really do the Rock justice in its magnificent existence. 

Uluru sunset - looks at all the beautiful reds and purples!

We camped that night and slept in what the Aussies call a “swag”. This is essentially a canvas sleeping bag with a bed roll inside. Pretty comfortable but a bit unnerving knowing what creepy crawlies could potentially be around you.

DAY TWO – started  just after 4am in order to have breakfast and get our spot in time for the magical sunrise over Uluru and the Olgas. It was absolutely beautiful but would have been a lot nicer with less people, or ideally with no one but the two of us. Still recovering from heat stroke and Adrian with his blisters, we took it easy this day only doing a shorter walk through the Olgas and stopping briefly to look at the massive salt lakes on our way to Kings Creek, our camping destination for the evening.  At this campground we had a big fire pit in the middle with everyone’s swags circling around it. It was nice to be able to take in the beauty of lying under the stars before falling asleep, heat stroke free.

Uluru sunrise

The Olgas

Adrian making the fire for the night

Getting ready for bed in our swags

DAY THREE – Another early start of 5am where we had a bit of a breakfast then we were on our way to Kings Canyon to begin the walk before it got too hot. We started the walk with a hill known as the “Widow Maker” and then continued onto the beehive looking natural structures. Halfway through we took a dip in a swimming hole near the “Garden of Eden” and laid over the edge of part of the canyon to look below. The rest of the walk was pretty quick as it was starting to really heat up. We went back to Kings Creek for lunch then began our drive back to Alice Springs. Overall, we were a bit disappointed with some aspects of the tour but still really enjoyed and appreciated the magic and sacredness of the “Red Centre”.

First part of our walk around Kings Canyon

Hanging over the edge for a better view ;)

ADELAIDE

As the train only leaves Alice Springs to go back to Adelaide once a week, we opted to take the Greyhound back instead of waiting around. The bus was brutal compared to the train! Minimal legroom which resulted in swollen legs and cankles, smelly and loud people, expensive stops for food and sleeping really wasn’t an option for the 21 hour trip. The one stop off I was looking forward to was Coober Pedy, where we had some extra time to look around and stretch our legs. Coober Pedy is known for its opal mining and hot weather so there are many houses and business underground. I was hoping to check some of them out but instead, as soon as we got out of the bus it began to rain like crazy! The rest of the bus ride was damp and like just mentioned. We definitely became train snobs and were so happy we had the train booked for our next leg from Adelaide to Sydney.

Adelaide was fun because it was the long weekend and Megan came out to join us in taking part in the city’s activities. The first night we checked out what the Adelaide Fringe Festival had to offer. Such a bizarre artsy festival but so different and fun! We spent most of our time in the “Garden of Unearthly Delights” which had different circus, comedy and music acts, a freak show, and loads of clothing and food stalls. The next day we went on a wine tour through the Barossa Valley with Megan, her roommate Dave and his wife Heather.  Beautiful day, great company, lovely wine – no complaints from us! The third day we decided to check out the local beach, Glenelg. A good day to do it as the temperature was around 35 degrees. Megan flew home that night and we caught the “Indian Pacific” train to Sydney the next morning.

People lining up for the "Freak Show" at the Fringe

The gang enjoying our wine at our second stop

The three of us at the Glenelg pier