Australia Part II: Adelaide to Alice
We took the overnight Overland train from Melbourne to Adelaide riding "Red Kangaroo" class (i.e. schlub) and plopped into bed immediately at the hostel. We spent a lazy weekend in Adelaide self-catering, taking a walk by the river, and going out to hear a band called "Magma" at a local hang-out called the Rhino Room. On monday morning we were picked up by our guide, Jim, leader of the "Heading Bush" tour, met our 8 fellow travelers (2 brits, 1 canuk, 2 dutch, 1 japanese, 1 israeli, and 1 german) and were off on a 3500km adventure in a Toyota Land Cruiser (Sonya, "good onya, Sonya") with a bob-trailer (Bob, "good job, Bob") equipped with swags, cooking gear, and a full supply of water and petrol.
We headed north for our first stop at Mount Remarkable National Park where amongst kangaroos and emus we had picnic lunch. We proceeded through the tiny town of Quorn to a short hike called Devil's Peak which gave us our last view of the ocean or any water to speak of for several days. As the sun began to set we pulled off the road to pick firewood, a daily ritual that made for great sunset pictures and reliably re-energized the group before we made camp. We soon learned that Jim was quite the bush cook as he enlisted the group to prepare a variety of meals for us over the next several days. That night it was busharoni (pasta shells w/ veggies and sauce) and Tim-Tam slams for dessert (hot milo slurped through devilishly good cookies around the campfire). At Warren Gorge, the sky was chock full of stars, the dunny was elusive, and the foxes were aggressive, but harmless.
Ritual number 2 made itself evident when we awoke, cozy in our swags, at dawn to U-2's "it's a beautiful day" cranked on Sonya's tape deck. After brekkie and packing up camp we walked along the park road and were lucky enough to spot some Yellow-footed wallaby. Satisfied with the first night's camp we piled back in the truck and made our way to Arkaroo Rock walk where we saw some aboriginal rock painting, visited a place called Wilpena pound where a pioneer family attempted to grow wheat (in the outback?), did some "rally" driving putting Sonya to the test, stopped into the remote Blinman pub to get a taste of the outback grog.
Again we dined luxuriously, stir-fry followed by chocolate bananas, this time at Parachilna Gorge. Jim brought his didgeridoo to the campfire and Bill was hooked. The didgeridoo is an aboriginal wind instrument made of eucalyptus wood that has been hollowed out by termites. The aboriginal people then shape and decorate the long tube-shaped instruments which produce a bellowing low vibrating sound. (extended scobie). The nightly campfires brought not only musical entertainment, but also silly campfire games, authentic Aussie singing ("I love my echidna" by Jim), and brain-teasers all of which were sources of running jokes throughout the trip.
One running joke was that no matter how far we were from anywhere, Jim said it would take about 45 minutes...Another was that the competing tour group lamely named "groovy grape tours" would occasionally overlap with us, but their tour was comparatively cush (ie showers, tents, bus w/ A/C...) so when we found ourselves in awe of the remote beauty, stinking from no shower, well-fed with camp food, the line was, "you don't get this with groovy grape." It was best articulated by Mosheh, the Israeli, with his gutteral "R"and always made for a good laugh.
Over the next several days we sampled Quondong pie, slept in swags on top of Sonya, met a way-out artist named Talc-Alf, visited an aboriginal community center, were attacked by black flies, visited a politically-motivated sculpture park made from remnants of the old Ghan railway, saw the salty shores of Lake Eyre South (with water!!), ate scrumptious burritos by the fire, dipped in Coward natural hot-springs under the stars, awoke daily to U-2 blaring, visited many a remote roadside homestead (one with a parking meter! ha), photographed classic Aussie road signs, saw the infamous dog-fence, took an underground tour in an opal mining town (Coober Pedy), showered once, drove across the barren Moon Plain, took in the fantastic colors of the Painted Desert, ate Kangaroo lash with damper, visited an aboriginal school in Oodnadatta home of the Pink Roadhouse, swam at dawn in yet another natural hot springs in Dalhousie, tried to stir a game of hackie sack with some local aboriginal kids in Finke, and barely saw any other vehicles as we avoided the Stuart highway (main 2-lane) in preference for dirt roads.
Day 8 we arrived at Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, the icon of the Red Centre. And, we were not disappointed by its enormous size and striking color after days of driving across barren plains. We walked the 12km base walk, but opted not to climb up the rock itself because it became clear by reading the literature and visiting the cultural center that the aboriginal community was discouraging tourists from climbing. We also visited the neighboring rock formation called Ka-ta-ju-ta, formerly known as Valley of the Winds which was equally massive and quite beautiful with bulbous red rock formations stacked beside each other. In the Uluru region we were lucky enough to see two lizards, one a bearded dragon that could camouflage itself by becoming as red as the rock, and the other a thorny devil with amazing yellow and brown markings on its spiny body.
Our final wilderness experience was at Kings Canyon which is an expanse of limestone rock formations around an enormous canyon. And, after one more night of bush camping, and our only night of rain, we reluctantly made our way to Alice Springs (civilization). There we had....a shower!...and a requisite night out with the group to celebrate 10 beautiful days in the bush.
From "Alice" we took a fast ride south for 2 days with Jim and hopped the Indian Pacific from Port Augusta to Perth. (2 and a half days, "Red Kangaroo" service once again). Thanks for reading and more about our "wicked" road trip planned up the west coast of Australia soon....