Day one of the ashes, rum anyone?

......oh come on it's nearly Christmas! 

Bundaberg is famous for producing Australia's favourite rum, Bundaberg rum (marketing guru must have been off sick that day). 90% is sold in oz, 9% is exported to NZ and only 1% is exported to the rest of the world. It's safe to say these ozzy lot drink a lot of bundy rum.

Bundaberg's Distilling company was incorporated in November 1888. 
The first rum was officially distilled in 1889 - 22,500 gallons of it. 

The discovery that molasses fermented into alcohol was made by plantation slaves in the Caribbean.  

We had a tour of the museum and production plant.  Alcohol levels are so high that any items with a battery had to be locked away prior to the tour in case of an explosion!  You could get high just walking around this place!  They store the rum for 2 years in American wood barrels.

Pleased to say that the tour concluded with a tasting session.  Now rum isn't high on our favoured drinks list, but mixed with ginger beer it wasn't half bad!  

The return of the Boomerang

Today, still raining, we head for cover at a local cultural centre for some local aboriginal history and lessons in the art of Didgeridoo playing and boomerang throwing. 

The Didgeridoo uncovered - a hollow piece of timber bored out by termites, normally coated at one end with bees wax. Used as a musical wind instrument at traditional ceremonies and no doubt in times of fun throughout many homes of international travelling folk when they finally get back home. Well it beats the sound of someone murdering a love song on a acoustic guitar. Didj Dave dropped some techno vibes, a little more practice required!

The boomerang thought to be produced purely as a fun time item although some models 
were used to hunt though these were not designed to come back! We both gave our boomerangs some wellie and pleased to say they did return, sort of!

Whilst completing our training we discussed aboriginal history with our guides. They touched on the history surrounding the natural migration of Papua New Guineans (PNG) back in the 50s and 60s to the Northern and NSW territories.  They first had to navigate their way across the stretch of seas between northern oz and PNG. This is known as the Torres Strait named after early Spanish explorers. Within these 
waters are 18 islands that are inhabited but there are many that are not. There are over 100 islands in total. This section of ocean is 150 kms wide and very dangerous for ocean going ships. If captains do guide their vessels safely through this stretch of seas they then have the barrier reef to contend with.

Airlie Beach with Schoolies

Travelling away from a region that is tropical and contains large scale mountainous rain forests was never gonna be a dry experience but the weather over the last couple of days has been something else. The locals have tagged it anti-cyclonic gloom !!  With this said it kinda made our decision to opt for the bus to start the first leg of our journey south. 

We left Cairns at dawn with an 8 hour road trip to complete. The bus picked up fellow travelling folk at Gordonvale, Innisfail, Mission beach and Tully. All a bit same, same but different if you get what we mean. Tully being famous as the wettest town in Oz and to celebrate this fact the town has positioned a 7.9 metre high wellie boot in it's centre (7.9 metres being the amount of rain which fell in 1950). As it happened our brief time in Tully and come to think of it the whole 8 hour journey, it was pretty wet! 

These lands are sugar cane country. As far as you can see there are fields and fields of it. Narrow gauge railtracks line the main roads, these link the vast fields to the sugar mills which is the first thing you spot when you enter Tully. Her chimney smoking silently as we passed through. Ahhhh smell the molasses! Most of the sugar produced goes into the production of local rum.

We had a change of drivers at Townsville, which looked more like Doomsville Let's just say the place could do with a bit a work. 

The pull for Airlie Beach world over is getting out on the water and seeing the Whitsunday islands. But not when it's cloudy as hell, raining horizontally and blowing a choppy 30-35 knots. So after sharing Airlie Beach for one night with a zillion partying schoolies (the oz term for a school leaver) we headed for the Bruce highway to continue our journey south. 

The bus ditched we picked up our new ride, a bronze Hyundai Glitz. She looked like a roller boot on these roads. She's probably one of the smallest cars on the road downunder, belting speaker system though. Rucksacks brimming from the ridiculously tiny boot the drive down to Rockhampton (Rocky) was like a drive across Bodmin moor, in January. 

To our right the mist bouncing off the Great Dividing Ranges and to our left the storm clouds rolled in from the barrier reef. Who'd have though it hey, the land of the sun shade and stubby cooler getting rain and sheet grey cloud stretching out for some 1000 kms. All pretty rubbish really. But fear not, us Brits are masters in this situation as these sorts of conditions are two a penny in the land of the inclement weather. The show 'always' goes on.

Tropical Cairns

Our trip up to the rain forest of Cape Tribulation for some croc spotting in  natural surroundings certainly lived up to it's name, ponchos at the  ready, it pretty much chucked it down all day. At the moment we are in the season known as the 'Build Up' season prior to the wet season. It's around 90% humidity and a fair bit of rainfall occurs most days with flooding in some parts.

We then jumped onto a boat for a Daintree river cruise - Croc watch !! Boarding advice given - 'Whatever happens do not lean out of the boat'. It was certainly highlighted this wasn't zoo type conditions, and all rivers and lakes in these tropical parts are deemed croc inhabited, all definitely very wild and therefore extremely dangerous. The Daintree River is very wide but very shallow. 500mm in the centre at low tide. Perfect for saltys. The river is 10kms from the ocean. Tree snakes, non-venomous though, hmmm, hang from the Mangrove trees that line the river. Again perfect for those saltys to sneak about in looking all very dangerous. We did manage to spot one!

Some quick croc facts:

The Oz salt water croc, known as the salty, is deemed the ultimate ambush predator and normally hunt in or around the waters edge. They grow up to 7 metres long and can hold their breath for 4-5 hours.  They are strong enough to project their whole body weight completely out of the water to capture any  passing prey. Attacks on humans are rare, last year there was none but the year  before there were 5 in Oz. All attacks have been river based, and all on locals. Saltys are known to swim hundreds of Kms out to sea to hunt.

The journey up to Cape Trib was on the Captain Cook highway which hugs the  coastline and was windy to say the least. Shame that the beaches contain  the dreaded box and erigangy jelly fish. Safety catch nets are provided for swimming areas, not sure though if these would keep out those saltys though!!  Cape Tribulation is the only spot in the world where two natural world heritage sites meet, rain forest and reef. In the wet season it isn't uncommon for a metre of rain to fall overnight, cutting off access. The forest contains 3500 different types of plants and is thought to be the oldest rainforest in the world. The forest contains the highest number of the worlds most endangered and at risk of extinction natural plants and species.  We did a boardwalk through a part of the rainforest looking out for snakes, spiders and anything else that could take a bite!

Cape tribulation was was given it's name by Captain Cook after his  ship ran aground on the GB reef. Could Cookie be tagged as the first  tourist to vandalise the reef ?

On route to Cape Trib beach we pulled in at the Jindalba boardwalk. A 3 kms walk that traverses through the forest slightly above the forest floor. Some great wildlife and plant species on view but every noise from the bush got you thinking. What the *!*? is in there and is it on route to eat us !! 

Just off the Cook highway the Walu Wugirriga (Alexander lookout) it was  just possible through the low clouds to see where the rain forest and  Daintree river meets the ocean and the great barrier reef. Great  views also of the Alexander ranges and Snapper island. Still raining !! 

We stopped at Mosseman gorge.  At the end of a newly opened suspended causeway the mountain rains are tamed as they tumble over huge granite boulders to create a cool fresh water clear swimming holes of Mosseman Gorge. Getting in was  cold and the general feeling seemed a bit crazy at first, crocs still on most peoples mind, but as the sun broke through the high tree canopy all seemed pretty good.

The Great Barrier Reef

On arrival at tropical Cairns straight away it was clear it was totally 
different to anywhere else we've stayed in Oz. Like a seaside town 
with all the usual suspects regarding shops, bars etc all overflowing with tourists which sometimes isn't always a good thing. It was clear that this place had lots to see and do and our wallet was going to hurt! 

 We jumped onto our boat, Silverswift, that was taking us out to the 
Great Barrier Reef. 80 minutes of slightly choppy water, with plenty of 
sick bags on the go, we get to our first reef site. We practiced our 
usual theory - don't be first in or last out!  Throughout the day we anchored at various spots: Flynn, Pellowe, Milln and Thetford reefs all just off the edge of the continental shelf.

The reef at a glance:
Larger than the great wall of china
The only living thing visible from space
It's one of the seven wonders of the world
It stretches for 2300 kms from the Torres Strait to north of Bundaberg (that's approximately the same distance as London to Athens)
It pulls two million visitors per year generating $2 billion

Everyone entering the water is encouraged to wear a stinger suit, a sexy
tight fitting little Lycra number, now with added mitts and hood, 
nice.  This is because of the jellyfish are such a problem.  Once suited up and masks and snorkels at the ready we jumped into the deep. Your first reaction is a mighty big one. With water as warm as a bath but not a coastline in sight, masses of fish and the most well known coral going just sat there 1 metre below the surface. The coral, especially the soft moving corals, were just amazing. Crazy in colour as well as in shape. 

Back at the backpackers we'd met a great couple from the Netherlands, 
Richard and Carolina, we'd gone halves the hire of a underwater 
camera which was great fun. At one point it started to rain and when 
you were under the surface you could actually hear the rain drops 
hitting the sea. Plenty of marine life spotted; reef shark, turtle and 
fish galore. Pleased to say that we came home with limbs in tact and only one 
jellyfish spotted.  

Royal Flying Doctors

Back from the rock and a few hours to kill before our flight to Cairns we dropped into the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS) Museum. The Flying Doctors, remember the program well yeah ?

The RFDS is a registered charity but does receive some funding from the government. 40% is covered by grants and the service relies heavily on donations. The service is free for all Australian residents and the insured traveller.

As well as the emergency service they also provide other services such as clinics in remote places, a gp service over the radio and replenishing medical chests. They cover over 20 million km per year and have a fleet of 43 planes with each aircraft costing $6 million. Each plane needs replacing every 10/15 years! It started in 1928 with an aircraft (De Havilland DH50) hired from Quantas at a cost of 2 shillings per mile. The landing strips they use all over the country are owned by landowners/farmers. It is the landowner's responsibility to maintain these strips at their own expense. Strips are either lit or unlit, if unlit they can not be used at night and that patient would have to get to the nearest lit strip or wait till daylight, and that could be several 100 kms (not good in the case of the old snake bite where every second counts).

The Red centre unexplained

                                                                               

A Kwik-Fit tyre branch, outback style

A good example of the unexplained 

Further re-cycling

         

Backpackers guide to re-cycling

                                           

Thankfully this isn't our Falcon

Ayres Rock rocks!

After 25 hours on the rails we were reving to go. A Ford Falcon station wagon awaited us complete with camping equipment. One small minor detail - no tent only a swag (google it, then imagine Fe in one, no flippin chance). The wagon had cruise control so the 440 km wasn't too bad but no time was to be wasted in order to arrive by dusk, not just roo action here, cattle, camels and thorny devils also roaming around!
Our first night of swagging was interrupted due to some dramatic thunder, lightening and rain. The station wagon then became our new digs and to be fair it wasn't bad as she was so big she almost needed reverse beepers.  Accommodation at the rock has been limited to one resort which has multiple options. From boutique hotels to outback camping, guess which we went for?

Obviously our wagon didn't have curtains but that didn't matter as at 4.30am we were up and heading for sunrise at the rock.  You start to see the rock some 30 kms away as you work your way along the Lasseter highway with anticipation on what's it gonna be like. And then wham there she is just sat there glowing. Its one of those really, an object when no matter how many times you've seen it in pictures nothing really prepares you for your first sight of such a mass of red rock just sat there on the horizon.

After our chilly sunriser and a hot cuppa we spent time in the cultural centre reading out the rocks aboriginal history. As climbing the rock is a big no no (the aboriginals don't want people climbing it) we opted for the 14km base walk. She really is a big lump!

Dusk brings another wave of tour buses back to the rock for the sunset. After a bit of a cloudy day we were treated with a gap in the clouds and the sun showing itself just before dipping on the horizon.
Completely lighting up the rock with an orange glow, awesome!

Ulura (Ayers Rock) is 3.6km long and rises a towering 348m from the surrounding sandy scrub land. It is believed that two thirds of the rock lies beneath the sand. Archaeological work suggests that Aboriginal people have lived in the area for at least 22,000 years.

The beliefs of Uluru are that of strong aboriginal history acting under aboriginal law. The aboriginals hear of this law from others who know. Their grandmothers and grandfathers who held the law and culture
strongly, they lived strongly and happily.  Today within Uluru both white people and black people work together as equals.

Everything at Uluru still runs according to aboriginal law. All rangers wear a badge carrying the image if Uluru. The aboriginals believe this is the way things should be. The national park is protected according to the law. Aboriginal people are constantly training rangers and scientists about the animals and plants within
the park. They teach them where to look for animals and where to find their burrows and what and how they eat to survive.  Government laws are written on paper, Anangu (Uluru Aboriginals) only carry their law in their heads and souls. They do not or will not put it down on paper. The laws are continually passed down from generations held only in their heads and hearts.


The rock, A question of climbing : The climbing of the rock is not encouraged as it's deemed as a sacred
thing in the eyes of Anangu. It's believed that Tjukurpa law has taught the aboriginals the correct way to behave, therefore they ask people to respect the law and not climb the rock or photograph any sites that are marked as sacred. Over 35 deaths have occurred through people attempting to climb the rock, the Anangu people feel great sadness when a person is hurt or dies on their land.

Gain with the train

Today we leave south austrailia and head up to the northern territory on The Ghan from Adelaide to Alice Springs.  Four wheels not in use today, which is good news after covering some 1260 kms in a car and then 800 kms in the van so this morning's plan of just pitching up at the train station to cover the next 1500 odd kms north has made us both smile very much indeed.


We are booked into red class which gets us a spacious reclining sleeper seat for the next 25 hours. Once we jump off at Alice Springs the train then continues north up to Darwin, with a journey total of 54 hours and 2979 km! You can kinda see why she only runs in one direction once a week and she's only completed this journey, Adelaide to Darwin, in one go since 2004.

 

The original Ghan line followed the route of explorer John MacDouall Stuart. The first train left Adelaide on 4 August 1929. The train's whistle pierced the silence of the MacDonnell Ranges surrounding Alice Springs 2 days later. The train was steam hauled and had to contend with extreme conditions including flash flooding and intense heat. Once getting stranded in one spot for two weeks, the engine driver shot wild goats to feed his passengers!

In 1980, the Old Ghan's narrow wooden sleeper style rail track was abandoned in favour of the new standard gauge track. This was mounted on concrete sleepers to provide a termite proof rail system,
thankfully.  The service, old and new, has now been running for 81 years and today's trains have real spacious seating, lounge and lounge carriages all which have in carriage toilets and showers, they even throw in complimentary towels. Our train stretched for 30 carriages long. The first two up front carrying cars. The train tootles along at a speed of 60mph. The exterior and interior have an art deco feel and you expect Hercule Poirot to walk through at any moment.

Once away we headed west which took us up alongside the Spencer Gulf, this gave some great views of the Flinders Ranges up to Port Augusta. From here we leave the coast and head north where through the night
we will reach the outback and enter yet another timezone.


I arose early from my recliner seat to watch the sunrise around 5am. As she rose from the horizon it lit the whole right hand side of the train acting as a signal to passengers that a new day had arrived. Within a few hours we reached the northern territory boarder some 1000 kms north of Adelaide. A 1000 kms covered just like that, now this is the way to get around this island!! As they say, it's too easy man.  From the carriage display the outside temp reads a steady 28c whilst inside it's a steady 21c. Kinda slightly bed smelly, but alls ok.
Last winter brought record rainfall to the northern territories therefore as we glide through the outback it's full of colours not normally on show. We pass many culverts and track side gullies that are full with rain water, all slightly tainted orange from the surrounding soil.  Throughout the journey there were various info announcements highlighting points of interest as we passed through the outback. Some more interesting than other, but you just gonna love old Ozzie honesty.

Highlights of England's thrilling 35-18 victory over Australia

Its tough being a pom at times.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/9187428.stm

Average Adelaide

After great last night in Melbourne we found ourselves sat at Avalon airport feeling a little sluggish, Those margaritas were good though, well why wouldn't ya? Deano dropped us off and was then heading back to Ocean Grove for a surf, the lucky git. Well why wouldn't ya. For us two Adelaide awaited us.

Not a great start as on checking into our hostel at Adelaide we realized that we had mislaid our passports! Ahhhh. After a rather hairy 30 mins and some frantic calls to airlines, airport and the like we are told that we had left them on the plane. Double Ahh. I wouldn't recommend this type of manoeuvre for the weak hearted. This resulted in one of us, Dave drew the shortest straw, cycling back to the airport to collect them. Treble ahh. Have you ever tried to cycle to a airport complex, I can tell you its a nightmare and not really worth trying unless your forced too. Now this is the first type of boob on the trip. Were blaming it on the fact that we were doing an internal cheapy flight that had such a low luggage allowance we were forced to either wear or carry a fair amount of our belongings. Imagine what we looked like at check-in! The moment of relief to reach out and hold our passports again was pretty much beyond words. We think the flight up to Cairns will now be executed with military precision. Back to full baggage allowance, and no pre-margaritas will be tolorated !!

Our first morning and we woke at 7am to the sounds of christmas carols belting out over the tannoy. The streets were lined with 200 thousand odd festive folk hollering and singing christmas songs. Indeed today Christmas had arrived, its was Adelaide's christmas pageant. They were going for a world record for the most carol singers, 9116 to be precise, sang in tune of course for 15 minutes.

Locals were complaining of the cold at 20 degrees. Understandable we guessed as we were told last year it was 35 degrees.  86 floats rolled past us but it just didn't seem christmasy. Father christmas in flip flops? All seemed very strange to a couple of north hemisphere peeps.