Australia seems to have been our base for such a big part of this trip that we couldn’t quite believe that this was the last time we would fly here. Cheap flights from Sydney to Buenos Aires were the reason for coming back and we thought we’d take this opportunity to come and harass Skanky for one last time. As hospitable as ever she let us crash at hers for a few days and even got me my favourite and much missed pasta and pesto for our first night’s dinner. The weather was great and we visited our old haunts and even ventured up onto the roof of Skank’s building for great views over Bondi.
The flight to BA was luxurious with extra leg room seats and telling anyone who’d listen that it was our honeymoon scored us several servings of champagne. Despite watching 5 movies and many documentaries I hadn’t exhausted the choice of in-flight entertainment and the 13 hours went far too quickly for my liking.
BA is a beautiful city with great historical architecture and a strong sense of culture. We explored the Sunday flea markets in the oldest part of town which were fantastic with local crafts, food, drink and street performers. We walked what felt like the entire city trying to suss out the neighbourhoods we fancied living in for the next month while Mark does a bit more work to earn the money for this last leg of the trip. Staying in a homestay for a few days was really useful to pick the brains of the other english guys that had been here for several months. We are now however happily installed in our lovely little 1 bed apartment in the Palermo Soho area of town.
Our next stop was a relatively short drive to the Aboriginal owned Kakadu National Park. It was here that we met the ‘Prostrate Posse’, a bunch of bikers that were part of a huge group riding in convoy up through the Northern Territory fund-raising and promoting awareness of prostrate cancer. The guys sort of adopted us and forced us to drink beer with them, swear a lot and sleep in their spare Air Conditioned room. The tent was already pitched but the offer was too good to refuse so we had our best nights sleep since Coober Pedy. God knows we needed it as we were up at the crack of dawn for a sunrise Yellow River Crocodile cruise. It was jam-packed with wildlife especially in the form of crocs and birds. We apologise to any twitchers reading but we can’t remember any of the names. All I know is that my favourite was the tiny bird with the huge feet, look closely on the lily pad.
From one National park to another this time Litchfield. Here we trekked to amazing aboriginal rock art sites and swam in some beautiful swimming holes beneath waterfalls . We drove past several areas of bush that were being burnt in line with aboriginal traditions of regeneration for the land. We also came across a great deal of wildlife; the fury wallabies were most welcome, the spiders, particularly the yellowish one on our tent, were not.
It felt quite monumentous to finally arrive in Darwin - our final destination on this epic drive. As a treat for slumming it in the tent we got a cheapy deal at a posh hotel and lived it up for a few nights. The Australia version of Travelodge was quite different to the one hidden behind the petrol station on the A444. Here we had a swanky room, cable and two different swimming pools to chose between. Our camping gear had served us well, however would not be needed in Indonesia; our next destination and the land of dirt-cheap accommodation. Fear not though the gear went to a good home, as we donated it to charity mate, for the next larrikins that plan to tackle the explorer’s way!
From Alice Springs we had another massive drive to Katherine so decided to break things up with an overnight stop in Wycliffe Well, UFO sighting capital of Australia. We didn’t see any flying saucers, but we got a glimpse of the Devil’s Marbles. Arriving at sunset these giant balls of rock glowed orange and felt like a prop from the Flintstones. At night we kept an eye open for E.T but he was probably scared away by the near-riot between rival Aboriginal groups outside the camp site.
Further on at Mataranka we took a dip in Bitter Springs, so call because of the water’s taste. Floating downstream along with the strong current we couldn’t stop thinking that a huge crocodile was about to slide into the water with us despite being advised it was perfectly safe. Every time we heard some reeds twitch we’d speed up a bit and you can imagine our relief to reach the end and climb out.
Finally arriving at Katherine we were a bit disappointed/alarmed to find out that all kayaking along the gorge was suspended due to a ‘croc survey’. Since the wet season was approaching its end, it’s possible for crocodiles to get trapped there as the water recedes, leaving them to dine exclusively on tourists 
. Our disappointment was short lived however upon hearing that we’d arrived in time to catch a horse-hustlin’, bronko-bashing, rootin-tootin rodeo! We can assure you that despite appearances the cowboys were full-size and not midgets.
As we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn we were pleased to find the swarms of moisture hungry flies were starting to ease off. Unfortunately, we now had the plague of 24 hour oppressive heat to endure. At Uluru we were sleeping in thermals, silk liners and sleeping bags, now we were butt-naked and still sweating buckets. With some inspired thinking from the Mataranka camp’s groundsman we purchased a big pedestal fan and created the ‘Air-con tent’ envy of all other campers across the Northern Territory!
Although we were driving far too close to the camper van in the last photo, it was necessary to capture the motto that we thought our parents especially would appreciate.
Leaving Uluru behind us we continued on the road north to Alice Springs, passing endless desert and the occasional roadhouse for pit stops. After spending a few days camping in the outback, Alice Springs seemed like the height of sophisticated civilisation, the perfect place to restock our dwindling supplies. With fast-food joints and typical Aussie brand shops it felt like any other Australian town, just thousands of kilometres from anything like it in every direction.
Surrounded by cattle farms and isolated communities, Alice Springs pioneered some now famous public services to help people living in remote areas. We paid visits to both the ‘School of the Air’ and the ‘Flying Doctors’. The school used to broadcast lessons by radio to students who’d communicate back using their own pedal-powered radios. P.E and Maths at the same time! But in the 21st century they only use live video streams over the internet. Check out the Rolf-a-roo on the wall, classic Harris.
We saw a lot more Aborigines in Alice Springs, probably half of the population. Quite a contrast to virtually every other place we’d visited in Australia so far and a refreshing sight.
We celebrated our first wedding anniversary in style at Coober Pedy; living inside an old opal mine shaft. No, we haven’t resorted to squatting just yet, this is how the residents here survived the intense heat by living underground where it remains relatively cool. This place is famous for producing 70% of the world’s opals and is a free for all, so anyone can come and have a go at mining. The result is a very multicultural society with over 30 nationalities, but the downside is that as far as the eye can see there are mounds of dirt where everyone has tried their luck. We visited a great Serbian underground church, but nothing was a patch on our lovely little pad that we splashed out on for our anniversary treat. We had a great time fossicking in the day, braving the biblical plagues of flies that have covered most of the outback we’d seen so far. At night we cooked our steaks on a roaring log fire under an amazing blanket of stars and toasted surviving our first year in tact!
The drive to Uluru was a killer and we felt quite insignificant arriving at the camp site being the only little car in a mass of 4×4 trucks. We were anticipating great things from the “resort” we’d seen advertised but it was basic beyond belief, we couldn’t even boil water for our emergency pot noodles. Uluru at sunset was beautiful despite some clouds and the following day, along with our entourage of flies we explored its different faces. Unlike some ignorant prats we did not climb the rock in respect of Aboriginal culture. Leaving Uluru we made a brief stop at the Olgas, but after Mark had to spit out several flies we headed back to the car for the drive to Kings Canyon. He was thankful he didn’t swallow the fly as swallowing a massive Aussie spider to go after it wasn’t a very inviting prospect.
We got up at the crack of dawn, when the flies and temperature we more bearable, to take a walk through King’s Canyon. The scenery was spectacular with deep gorges, pancake rocks, sheer cliff edges and amazing views of the surrounding desert. Knackered and very sweaty we arrived back at the car and continued on through to outback heading for Alice Springs.
Arriving back in Melbourne felt a bit like coming home after our brief spell living here earlier in the year. Tan and Ben kindly put us up for the night and helped us start some pre-anniversary celebrations with a bottle of bubbly and a small shrine to our marriage. They also kindly bought the quintessential Aussie gift of his and hers stubby holders. The perfect welcome back to Australia!
Bleary eyed and still dark outside, we made our way to Southern Cross station to board ‘The Overland’ train to Adelaide. Taking just over 10 hours it was a good opportunity to catch up on the sleep we missed out on from the previous night. The scenery was typical of south Australia with gumtrees, vineyards and the occasional kangaroo. However, we were somewhat surprised to see a herd of giraffes on the horizon until the conductor explained we were passing by a huge safari park. Getting off in Adelaide we discovered that due to the Easter holidays everything would be closed for Good Friday, so we spent a pretty quiet day exploring the city and making plans for our trip up north.
With a giant shopping list and a swanky new hire car we set off on the first leg of ‘The Explorer Highway’; an epic trans-Australian drive from Adelaide to Darwin. We’d planned to camp as much as possible en-route to save some cash and got some great bargains on our gear. The first stop at Port Augusta was a mere stones throw from Adelaide but it gave us a good chance to perfect our erection technique before we got into the big bad outback. Even at this point the vegetation was starting to thin and the temperatures rise. Thank God for air-con!
Our daily routine whilst living on Bondi has been to drag our bodies across the road for some relaxation on the beach and a swim. On Pancake day however we were relieved from this monotony by going into the city instead! We went for the much anticipated pie, mash, peas and gravy that Mark had wanted to experience after I went with the olds.
I’m happy to report they were as good as ever and we finished this culinary day with Loub over for dinner, which ended with the classic pancakes sugar and lemon.
Loub took us away from the madness of Bondi at the weekend to the quieter beach resort of Avoca up the East coast. It is a Facer family favourite and we stayed at their regular haunt of Riley’s B&B; a stunning place set in beautiful grounds and run by the lovely Glenice & Quentin Riley. Their large veranda was a great place to sit and enjoy the home baked biscuits and watch the family of kookaburras who lived in the surrounding trees.
Being typical Brits we didn’t let the dark storm clouds shift us from the beach and after eating our sarnies in a light shower we then proceeded to body board (badly) in the heavy rain. We had a great dinner at the Funky Kitchen before an earlyish night in preparation for our early start…I had told Quentin I enjoyed swimming, so at 6.30am we were all jumping off rocks into the sea and swimming back to the beach. I borrowed a pair of goggles and began to regret it when several blue bottles and some jellyfish passed by. We all survived however and were very proud of our achievements.
On the drive back to Sydney we visited lots of the local sights, ate so much delicious food that I could hardly move, visited look out points and saw some (hard to identify) aboriginal carvings. It was a great weekend and we’re very grateful to Loub and Monty (the jeep) for getting us there and back safely.
This feat was so monumental it deserves a post all of it’s own. Mum, Mark and I climbed the Sydney Harbour bridge at 8:30am on Thursday 12th February. It was a fantastic experience and so professionally carried out by our hilarious guide Ronan, that despite being ridiculously high we all felt really safe and actually enjoyed ourselves.
The best photos I’m afraid are currently in Tahiti in Mum’s suitcase, which I forgot to take copies of before she left. Watch this space for those being added, but for now you will have to suffice with some highly attractive ones of us in fetching jump suits!
Thanks Jacq & Jon for our brilliant birthday and first anniversary gift!
We had heard great things about the Blue Mountains, a National Park 2 hours west of Sydney. The colours and landscape are supposed to be spectacular, but we couldn’t really comment on that considering as our whole time there was under a blanket of mist and rain! To actually appreciate the views we had to visit the local imax cinema where they showed an impressive film of what we had hoped to experience first hand.
I had booked the four of us into Possum Cottage in Katoomba for the weekend and it was a little bit of heaven away from the weather. The cosy abode had a big fire and outside was a jacuzzi set to 39 degrees in the private acre gardens. Between these 2 locations we just about managed to while away the weekend. I have never enjoyed staying in quite so much. We watched films and even played my first ever game of scrabble, quite an achievement for someone whose spelling borders on dyslexic. My smart arse husband on the other hand leapt to the lead with an huge scoring “Aquatints”.
Being very British we decided that despite the pouring rain we were going to make the most of their huge gas BBQ. I was amazed to see Dad donning a pinny and cooking…It’s such a man thing!
On Sunday we drove up to the Hunter Valley wine growing region where we thought we should make the most of mum; our T-total chauffer. While the rest of us slept off the booze, or in dad’s case his cold (man flu), she safely drove us back to our Bondi pad. Unfortunately when we arrived we found that during the heavy rains a roof and wall had leaked soaking our bed amongst other things. Instead of being able to offer Mum and Dad a comfy bed to rest in before their early morning flight to Tahiti, we had to share the sofa!
At 4.30am they left us for the last time and I’m not embarrassed to say I cried like a baby. We’ve had such good fun with them both and have many happy memories to treasure forever. We really appreciate you coming to the other side of the world to see us.
