Australia: Don’t Mind the Flies

Forget about putting another shrimp on the barbie. The slogan for Australia (at least the Northern Territory) should be: Don’t Mind the Flies! (The other alternative: Australia: Our Postal Service Sucks!)

In the towns it’s not quite so bad, but once you get out into the wilderness, you are swarmed by flies whenever you are outside. They like to buzz around your head, and land on your face. Lots of tourists wear a net over their head.

I am very well practiced at the Australian Salute: waving your hand around in front of your face!

I spent four days going to Uluru (Ayers Rock), King’s Canyon, and the West McConnell Range. I think Australia’s Red Centre is overhyped.

Uluru is a one-trick pony. You look at the western side at sunrise or sunset. If you choose to – and if you wake up early enough – you can climb it. I chose not to. I’ve climbed the Half Dome at Yosemite. Twice. It is a better accomplishment.

Nearby Kata Tjuta is a similar story. However, the “Valley of the Winds” hike is mildly interesting.

The enjoyment of both these places is hindered by the severe restrictions imposed on visitors. There are many places you are not permitted to photograph, including the entire eastern side of both Uluru and Kata Tjuta!

To the Aborigines, the rocks are sacred. But then, just about everything seems to be sacred, in some way.

The most interesting thing about these monoliths is that they are made of composite rock. When you get close, you see that millions of 6″-12″ smooth round rocks are cemented together in sandstone! So, the geology is interesting.

Then I headed to King’s Canyon. This “spectacular” redrock canyon is very disappointing! If it was in Utah, it would be the least interesting canyon in the state! Fortunately, I only stopped off on my way through to the Western McConnell Range. I did the short hike along the canyon floor, and didn’t waste time on the “rim walk”.

If I ever return to Australia, I don’t think I will bother with Uluru, again.

It was very, very hot! Temperatures topped 42C, and even night time was warm. I timed my long driving stretches for the middle of the day. Also, I drove slowly. There is no reason to speed to the destination, because then you just have to wait in the heat. It is better to take your time driving in air-conditioned comfort. And it saves on fuel.

I have to say that I would not mind having a camperized Toyota Land Crusher for travelling in Utah and Arizona. It is very capable for driving on the 4wd and rough roads, and decent for camping.

The lizard I saw is the Perentie Giant Lizard. It can grow up to 2.5 metres in length, and it is the second largest monitor lizard in the world, after the Komodo Dragon. I am not a good judge of lizard length, but I think the one I saw was at least 1.5m long, if not 2m.

Tomorrow morning I fly to Perth. It should be cooler!

The package that was supposed to greet me at post office in Alice Springs has not arrived! It was sent on Nov 13 by “express mail”. I am out of film, and this package is my re-supply. Now, I have to take drastic measures, and have film sent to Perth by Fedex (expensive!). The Alice Springs package is supposed to be redirected to Adelaide, where I will be in two weeks. I am doubtful that I will be there. The Australian Postal Service sucks!

Alice Springs

I arrived in Alice Springs, yesterday morning.

I went to pick up my next campervan. They were very slow serving customers. There were three rentals ahead of me, and it took 1:30 before I was served!

The vehicle reserved for me was having problems, so they upgraded me to a camperized Toyota Land Cruiser. It also has a pop-up top. It drives much better than the Toyota Hi-Lux camper, but it does not have as much space inside.

Toyota Land Cruiser camper.

To compare, here is the Toyota Hi-Lux camper:

And here is the damage I did to the Hi-Lux:

The nice thing about the Land Cruiser camper is that it drives much better than the Hi-Lux, both on and off pavement. It is also far more capable for 4wd roads.

On the other hand, the Hi-Lux has much more space in the camper unit. It is also more economical on fuel (and fuel is expensive here). Finally, the air conditioner only has to cool the cab in the Hi-Lux, but it has to cool the entire interior of the Land Cruiser, so it is more difficult to keep the Land Cruiser cool in the extreme heat of Australia’s “Red Centre”.

Alice Springs is a sleepy town. The post office was closed on Saturday, so I could not pick up my package of fresh film. I did not have enough film to head out for Ayers Rock without the risk of running out of film, so I decided to go for a short overnight trip east of Alice Springs. Tomorrow morning (Monday), I will pick up the package and be one my way!

Australia has lots of interesting critters. This morning, during the short trip east, I saw this lizard:

It was over 1 metre long! I walked along parallel to it for a while.

I have found my USB card reader. I stayed in a nice hotel in Darwin, near the airport, since I had a 7:00am flight to Alice Springs. I had half a day there, which gave me time to repack my stuff, and I found the reader. I also got to eat Barramundi for dinner, which is one of the local fish. It was tasty.

I saw a Barramundi earlier in the day, at “Aquascene”, which is place where you can feed fish in the harbour. You actually can put bread into the fishes’ mouth with your fingers!

Oh yeah, here is a 4.5 metre crocodile, from Yellow Water:

Back In Darwin

I’m back in Darwin, a day earlier than planned, for two reasons.

The first is that, while Kakadu Natl Park, Litchfield Natl Park, and the rest of the “Top End” are interesting, they are mostly a lot of the same thing. Once you’ve seen the few different types of scenery and critters, then there is just a lot more of it.

The second is that I managed to damage the camper I rented, so I will want to return it earlier in the day, tomorrow, than I would otherwise have done.

Now, I wish that the road to Jim-Jim Falls was closed! It is a 4wd track, so I figured I could take my 4wd camper on it. With a more experienced driver, it would be fine. There are big 4wd tourist busses going through it. However, I am not an experienced 4wd pilot. I even asked a Park Ranger at a visitor centre about the road, and stressed that I could not handle any “difficult” terrain, but she thought it was an easy drive.

The first 1/4 km was easy – just a bouncy road with some ruts requiring high clearance. Then I hit some short sections with deep, deep sand. I was hesitant about these. It is easy to get stuck in deep sand! Finally, I decided to try to cross through the sand, which was maybe five or six vehicle-lengths. Then, there was a very long stretch of much deeper sand.

I tried venturing into the deeper sand, and quickly felt like I was going to get stuck. I was able to reverse out to solid ground, and turn around. I had had enough!

However, on the way back, one of the short sandy stretches managed to surprise me. On the way in, it was downhill, with a right turn at the top. Going back, it was an uphill stretch with a left turn at the end.

Driving through sand, the vehicle bobs around a lot. You “aim” it in the direction you want to go, and hope the vehicle goes that way.

When I hit the left turn at the top of the sandy stretch, the vehicle bobbed sharply to the left. I had probably over-turned the wheel to the left. The result is that the top corner of the camper (the sleeping area) hit a tree, and the fiberglass is cracked and broken.

I have no idea how much it costs to repair fiberglass. The rental has insurance, but the deductible is very high! I did not opt to pay extra for a lower deductible.

Oh well. I will try not to let the extra expense spoil my trip.

I still haven’t found my USB card reader. I may have left it behind at some internet cafe. So, still no photos.

I did see some crocodiles. At the Yellow Water area in Kakadu Park, I went on a two hour river cruise and saw plenty of crocs. This was not a “hang a chicken over the side” type of tour, so no jumping crocs. However, we did have a croc less than one metre away from the boatside!

Kakadu National Park

I went straight from Darwin to Kakadu National Park, in my 4wd pop-top camper. I have seen plenty of wallabees (small kangaroos), but no crocs, yet. There are some river “croc cruises” where they hang some meat off the side of the boat, and make the crocs jump for it. I may try this on my way back to Darwin.

My mobile phone has no signal, ever since I was a few km’s from Darwin! So much for Vodaphone’s coverage.

I’ve also misplaced my USB SD card reader, so I can’t post any photos. I am in the library in one of the small towns in the park. The internet access here is expensive, and probably not very fast, either, so it is probably best that I can’t post photos.

The good news is that “The Wet” has not started, yet. The 4wd roads are still passable, so I can head to Jim-Jim Falls or some other sites.

It is very hot and humid, but at least it is not raining! The recommendation is to drink at least four litres of water every day.

I may not be back on the internet until I return to Darwin on the 24th, or maybe Alice Springs on the 25th.

Tablelands

Yesterday, I took a full-day tour of the Tablelands. This includes a lot of rainforest, sugarcane farms, dairies, a waterfall, a lake (in a volcano cone), and a crazy Spaniard’s castle.

Water dragon (sitting on branch).

The group was rather unsociable. There was a family of four from Northern England who communicated to each in an unintelligible mumble, two Australian sisters who refused to eat anything but toast at lunch (when lasagna, quiche, and some Greek vegetarian dish were available), and two Japanese girls who kept to themselves and giggled a lot.

There are a lot of Japanese tourists in Cairns. This is not surprising when there are direct flights to Cairns from three of Japan’s largest cities. Japanese tour guides and dive instructors are readily available.

I have sunburn on the backs of my ankles, from snorkelling. When I applied my sunblock, I was wearing socks, so I missed my ankles. The boat provided full-body wetsuits for swimming, but the ankles were not covered.

Tonight, I fly to Darwin. In Darwin, I will have a 4wd camper to tour around. It will be very, very hot and very, very humid!

Great Barrier Reef

Today, I snorkelled in the Great Barrier Reef.

There are countless tour operators running boats to the reef. I went with SilverSwift. They have a fast boat, and maximum of 70 people. Today, we had 52.

It takes 1:15 to get out to the reef. The water was choppy. Five or six people were puking! That’s 10% of the group! I was not puking.

Snorkelling the reef is great! It is also very easy. The boat anchors close to the reef. The water over the reef can be less than one metre deep, so you can get some very close views.

Over half of the group was scuba diving. Most were certified, but the tour also had an “introductory dive” for new people.

However, I found that snorkelling was perfectly sufficient, in this case. I did not need to bother with the hassle and cost of learning to dive. I was also able to dive around three metres with the snorkel.

We stopped at three places, and had between 45 minutes and one hour to explore. The time goes very quickly!

At the last location, one of the crew did a 30 minute “snorkel tour”, in which she dove for a Sea Cucumber so we could hold it, pointed out a Giant Clam, and showed which corals we could touch without causing harm.

I don’t have an underwater camera, so no photos. The above-water photos are not terribly interesting.

Australia Phone

I have my phone hooked up in Australia, now. The provider is Vodaphone.

Number: 8420379686

Australia country code is 61.

Chengdu Kite Fliers

I have a backlog of China photos and stories to post, so I’ll continue to post China material from Australia.

All over China, kite flying is a popular activity. I’ve seen kites in every city I visited.

These particular kites are in the People’s Park in Chengdu. You can see three kites, and the Monument to Railroad Workers’ Strike.

The kites can get very high, and the fliers have some fancy rigs for the line.

Of course, in Shanghai, the guys flying kites have an extra kite or two in a bag, which they offer to sell you! In Chengdu, the fliers are just friendly, and happy to have their photo taken.

Turtle Tours

Go jump in a lake!

I wanted an easy but interesting day to follow my travel day to Cairns, so I went with Turtle Tours for a look at some places near Cairns. Pickup at 10:00am, finish around 4:00pm.

The group.

We visited a nice swimming hole and a lake. We also went to see a couple of beaches, but the water is rough enough that the stinging jellyfish are washed over the protecting nets. Their stings can be deadly! So, the tour guide recommended staying out of the water.

Beach warnings.

The guide is a local guy who runs a few companies, providing tours and also transport for other tour companies. He shuttles people to the boats for reef tours in the morning, and back in the evening. He has the middle of the day free, so he does the small local tour. He has lots of colorful local stories.

Tomorrow, I go on a Great Barrier Reef tour. This includes snorkeling. It is also possible to “upgrade” to an introductory scuba dive. I will see when I am out there if I want to try the scuba.

G’Day, Cairns

After a grueling pair of flights, I am in Cairns, Australia!

I was dreading the Shanghai to Cairns flight. I was in economy class, and the ten hour flight left at 9:00pm.

Fortunately, in the 2-4-2 seating arrangement, I had two seats to myself, and the seat in front was also unoccupied! I was able to sprawl out in the two seats, and actually slept for around two hours.

Then I had to backtrack from Sydney to Cairns with a flight of over three hours.

Now, I have to arrange for a Great Barrier Reef snorkeling tour, and probably a rainforest tour, too.

A couple of nice features about Australia: no need for the ssh tunnel through the great firewall, and everyone speaks English!