Last of the Australia Trip - Finally!

So, two weeks in Victoria and now it's time to move on. We take the Overlander train to Adelaide. It was basically an 8 hour trip heading west out of Melbourne. What was so surprising to Ernie and I is how much this area of Aussie looked like Texas. If you removed the sheep and put cattle in their place and added some cactus, you would ave been in west Texas.

One of the interesting learnings for me after being in Victoria was how much I really missed wide, open spaces. While New Zealand is physically beautiful, you can get to the west coast on the south island in 4 hours. You can drive to the southern tip of the south island in 12 hours. While I wouldn't say I was suffering from rock fever, I obviously was really missing the big open spaces. While driving in Aussie, it suddenly felt like we were home in Texas - you could drive for hours and never see anything - it was great! We were in Adelaide for 3 days while we waited for The Ghan to make it's journey north to Darwin - once a week. While in Adelaide, we took a wine tour to the Barossa Valley and another one to the McLarenville wineries. Once again, really great big red wines. Wow! Oh, I have to share one of the greatest comments I've heard in a long time. We were at Langmeil Winery tasting and purchasing a bottle of wine. There were a group of your men - probably in their late 20s or very early 30s - out on a 'buck' weekend (that's a batchelor weekend to us yanks). One of the guys was getting married the next weekend. We were all talking back and forther and having a great time. While we were reading the label on the bottle we bought, one of the young guys looked over and said "break it's neck and suck out it's life force.' I looked at him and told him that he worried me and I didn't quite understand what he said. He repeated it again and I was still puzzled so he add hand movements to explain the meaning of this expression. He held a bottle of wine and mimicked unscrewing the cap while saying 'break it's neck.' e then mimicked drinking from the bottle and said 'and suck out it's life force.' That's when the lights went on and I got it! OK, so I'm a little slow at times. I've shared this story with so many folks and they all responded the way I did as far as understanding it and then when they did, they all thought it was great. So, I'm sharing this little tidbit with y'all.

Vat of grapes waiting to be crushed at Rockford Winery

We just missed getting to see the grapes being crushed in this apparatus,

They are transferring the recently crushed grape juice in the next step of the process

Here's the grape skins, seeds, stems and bits and pieces left from the crushing.














The Ghan is a transcontinental adventure that offers an unsurpassed view of Australia - North to South over three unforgettable days (if you travel from Adelaide to Darwin - or visa versa). Travel by rail between Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin and you are embarking on one of the great train journeys of the world. This train/trip is amed after the Afghan cameleers who once traversed this route, The Ghan will take you from one edge of this continent to the other, through the very center of Australia. A journey on The Ghan is an incomparable way to travel to the two jewels of Australia's Northern Territory – the Red Center and the tropical Top End. Unfortunately we only went halfway - to Alice Springs and spent four days in the Red Center. It was a great trip, overnight on the train. We haven't done an overnight on a train since we went to Prague 19 years ago.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

This was our car on the train

You can see one seat and then the sink is locked up on the wall. That's our door to the right

Here's Ernie is our cozy cabin. I'm in the seat opposite from him

We were going through a really sharp curve and I was able to take a photo of the engine from our car

So the seats folded down and the lower bunk pivoted down from the wall behind my seat. The upper bunk was then lowered from the ceiling and we attached the ladder to get up and down. The cabin was so small, we couldn't open the door all the way when the beds were made

Sunset from the parlor car on the train

We took a tour to Kata Tjuta and Ayers Rock. Kata Tjuta means many heads to the Australian Aborigines. It is a group of more than 30 rounded red conglomerate masses of rock rising out of the desert plain in the Northern Territory. So your riding along in the flat semi-arrid outback and suddenly these rocks rise out of the plains. After walking around Kata Tjuta, we got back on the bus to drive to Ayers Rock, aka Uluru. This is also is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory. It lies 335 km (208 mi) south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; 450 km (280 mi) by road. What this means is that the bus picked us up at 6 a.m. and we got back to the hotel at 12:30 a.m. - basically 5 hours each way to get there. As I said - really big wide open spaces. What was really cool about our visit here was that the middle of the Northern Territory has had higher than normal amounts of rainfall over the last few years and particularly this past summer. So much so that it really didn't present as a desert but was really green and the waterholes were full. Our guide told us that they are seeing flowers blooming that haven't been seen for at least 30 years.

Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Uluru is sacred to the aboriginal people of the area. The area around the formation is home to a wealth of springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient paintings. Uluru is listed as a World Heritage Site.

Uluru is one of Australia's most recognizable natural landmarks. The sandstone formation stands 1,142 feet high (rising 2,831 feet above sea level), with most of its bulk lying underground, and has a total circumference of 5.8 mi. Uluru is notable for appearing to change color at different times of the day and year, most notably glowing red at dawn and sunset.

OH, a really big OH, one of the other things we discovered in the Northern Territory are truck trains. You know how we have tandem trucks in the U.S. - one truck pulling two trailers? Well, here in the outback, they will hook together up to 10 or 12 and go down the highway. The travel books warn about these and said that you should usually allow up to one kilometer to pass. We only saw one with 3 trailers while we were traveling around.

This emu was on a ranch at our bus stop for morning tea

This is not Uluru but actually Mount Connor. While not as high as Ayers Rock, it's still pretty damn impressive!

This is our first view of the Kata Tjutas

This is a much closer view

These rocks are a conglomerate of rocks and sandstone. When you see it up close, you realize how really unstable this is

The Northern Territory is home to over 1.2 million feral camels and we were lucky enough to see one on the drive to Ayers Rock

If one is so inclined, they can climb Ayers Rock. This is the first part of the climb. Unfortunately my camera did not do justice to the path. This man is actually climbing down the rock face and he is holding on to a chain rope that comes down from the top of this first hill. Note that the chain stops just a little below him. Note also that he is not at the bottom of the climb when the chain stops raising the question as to how does he get down.

Answer - you get on your butt and slide down. Remember that this rock is basically a conglomerate of small rocks held together in sandstone. When you look at it closely, you can almost see layers of rock peeling off.

This really shows the effect of the wind on the sandstone and just how unstable it is.

This was our first view of Ayers Rock

We were having a barbie and watching sunset

Another sunset view of the rock

After doing this trip and getting in at 12:30 in the morning, we took another tour the next day but didn't have to leave until 8 a.m. What a joy! This day we went to the MacDonnell Range. The ranges are a 400 mile long series of mountain ranges located in the center of Australia, and consist of parallel ridges running to the east and west of Alice Springs. The mountain range contains many spectacular gaps and gorges as well as areas of aboriginal significance.

Ernie & I both agreed that the trip to Uluru was a 'tourist' must but we so much more enjoyed the MacDonnell Range. Out first stop was Stuarts Gap where we saw rock wallabyes.

 This picture is not great but these guys are little and really quick - jumping from rock to rock. Of course he wouldn't turn around and give me a smile. Oh well, maybe next time.
 

This photo so beautifully shows the rock upheaval that created this range

This was the beginning of an easy walk on the Chasm Trail - according to our guide. Check out the next several photos - ending with the bridge shot - to see our easy walk and you be the judge. I think some of these Aussie folk have been out in the sun too long!

A bridge. What a novel idea! Up to now we had to climb over the rocks or fallen logs to ford the stream.

This is a photo of the Ocher Pits. This is where the aboriginies got the rocks to crush to dye their paints for their cave drawings and various art work

This is a swimming hole on the Finke River which is the oldest unaltered river in the world. I was floating on a tube towards the gap in the rocks.

These are my feet. I was really floating on a tube through the gaps. See the upheaval on the rocks?

This photo was taken from the other side of the gap

OK, this now takes us to our last full day in Alice Springs and Australia. We decided to spend the day just wandering the city and checking it out. There is a river that goes through Alice Springs, the Todd River. What is so unusual about it is that the locals refer to it as an upside down river. The visible river bed is actually dry and the water runs underground.

This is the Todd River

Here's Ernie standing in the middle of the Todd River

The funny story about this river is that once a year, the local community holds the Henley on Todd race. There supposedly is a famous river race in the UK on the Henley River. Well, the folks in Alice Springs decided to have some fun with that so they hold their annual Henley on Todd race. Participants come from all over. The rule is that you have to make your boat but because the Todd doesn't have water, your boat has to be bottomless and you have to walk/run/carry your boat. The funniest part of this is that three years ago, they had to cancel the race because of there was water in the Todd because of flooding.

We had dinner at the Overlanders Restaurant in Alice Springs and had their tasting platter which consisted of crocodile, kangaroo, emu and camel. We had eaten emu in the US and it was good. We had already eaten kangaroo a few times during our stay in Aussie and that is also good. The crocodile was a new one for us as was camel. I really liked the crocodile while Ernie was so-so about it (more because they made it in a Mornay sauce and he doesn't particularly like that.) But I have to tell you that I absolutely love camel. It's my new favorite meat.

So that's our month in Australia. What can I say other that magical! Just a few more posts to the New Zealand trip that I'll do over the next 2 days because we then leave to return to the U.S. I can't believe the year has passed already. Anyway, more tomorrow. Have a great night!