Port Douglas, the rainforest and the mighty Barrier Reef.

The flight to Cairns got away early and got into Cairns even earlier due to favourable tailwinds. The second of our two flights with Qantas and both were excellent flights, service and super flight crew.

Now the heat in Red Central was very hot but it was a dry heat. We got off the plane in Cairns and we could feel it was equally as hot (at 1800hrs) but we were now in the tropics and it was heavy with moisture and very humid. We picked up our car and headed north to Port Douglas where we had three nights at Dougies backpacker resort.

The drive up was OK albeit dark but not a long journey. We got to Dougies around 1930hrs and checked in with a guy called Rowan who was very friendly, helpful and got our first beer in, OK in my book!! Dougies was set amongst the trees of the rainforest, quite a nice setting. Our room was OK and the facilities good. We also appear to have left the nuisance flies in Red Central which is great!!

So after a couple of beers we sorted a few things and crashed out. The following day we were up early for breakfast but we had no supplies as we had just flown in so we went to the ‘Rainforest Habitat’ a few kms up the road and had breakfast with the birds. Now this habitat place was home to all Ozs’ birdlife, some crocodiles, ‘roos, wallabies and of course koalas. It was done very well with most of the birds free to come and go but as was pointed out not many go as they get well looked after in their ‘habitat like’ surroundings.

Breakfast was as much as you could eat with flagons of tea. On the bird front there were black parrots, rainbow lorikeets, full size cockatoos to name but a few whizzing past your ears whilst you were trying to eat!!

It was a super place and all with the blessing of David Attenborough who had visited a few weeks earlier whilst out in Oz filming his next wildlife spectacle for the beeb. The birds were wonderful colours and sounds, the wallabies and roos just ignored you then fed from your hands and the crocs were just cool hanging out in the water. The stars of the show were of course the koalas who got plenty of attention. We spent about 5 hours there before leaving to do a walk.

Just up the coast from Port Douglas is Daintree, the Daintree rainforest and the Mossman Gorge. All this is in the Cape Tribulation area of Northern Queensland. The walk at the gorge was very spectacular but sadly cut short due to works on the tracks so we were a little disappointed. However we had a bit of a stroll and then went to get some supplies in before heading back to Dougies to book our reef trip.

With reef trip booked, all clean and showered after a few beers and some grub we retired. The following day we were picked up at 0845 and taken to the port for our boat. It was a reasonable sized boat with facilities for both scuba and snorkelling. As we pulled out of the harbour we were told the seas were moderate due to some winds of around15 to 20 knots (please explain later Jack!!) Anyway there was talk of seasickness tabs and Mrs D who loves being on the high seas instantly turned green. She hurriedly downed the obligatory tabs which had no effect whatsoever and went on to have the most awful of days and did not get to see the reef at all – the seas I have to say were pretty choppy and there were others not too good either enough said.

Feeling riddled with guilt, I had the most wonderful of times in the sea snorkelling over the reef, which was sometimes 20 feet below me then next 2 feet away. It was superb and the fish and coral quite spectacular. It rated well high up with the natural history experiences. One which if I ever get the chance will do again. The crew on the boat were excellent and couldn’t do enough for us (aside from getting a chopper to get Mrs D back to terra firma!!) The food was good all the kit was excellent and the knowledge these guys had of the reef was second to none. At one point I went out on a reef snorkelling tour with a few others and one of the crew, very informative.
Well I think that’s enough on the reef, I could go on but I don’t want you all falling asleep just yet.

The evening was a quiet one and the next day we were heading south on what was our longest drive of the whole trip. 430 miles to Cannonvale Bush Village resort in the Whitsunday Islands area. We enjoyed our stay at Dougies which had a lazy easy feel to it and was in a lovely setting. Port Douglas, Daintree and Cape Tribulation were spectacular and possibly worthy of another visit if only to breakfast with the birds again.

Kings Creek to Uluru

Today we have two hundred miles to drive to Uluru and Ayers Rock Campground. Not before our final bushmans breakfast though! After filling up and fuelling up we set off to “the rock.” Many miles of bush, straight roads and the odd big red camel bouncing across the road in front of us. On the way to Uluru we pass Mount Connor which is a table topped mountain twice the size of Uluru but for some reason doesn’t get the publicity Uluru does. It stood quite impressive on the red plains looking good.

Shortly after a brief pix stop we moved on and found a coffee stop which sadly was cut short by the overwhelming amount of flies wanting to share our brew!!

Now then, Ayers Rock & the Olgas National Park is sacred Aboriginal land and as such there are lists of what you can and cannot do and take pictures of. You have to pay a $25 park entry fee of which some ends up with the local managing tribes.

Ayers Rock Resort was built to service the park along Conellan Airport. The whole resort and airport are owned and run by one Company and as such there is no competition and it is pretty much a licence to print money. In the lonely planet guide to the Rock it says that everything here is very expensive so if you don’t want to pay it, don’t go as everything is over the odds. On the other hand if you choose to go, don’t grumble about it as you knew it would be expensive and as such just pay up, lie back and think of England!!

We were staying in another canvas cabin which was OK but the camp kitchen didn’t cater for those in these units. There was no where to boil a kettle, no pans to prepare or warm food, the kitchen was a 5 minute walk away as were the toilets and showers. We were grumbling but the sun shone, the flies never let up and we were at Ayers Rock!!

Your first sight of the rock is quite weird as you have seen it many times in pictures but “in the flesh” it looks so damn big!! We went down to see the sun set over the rock along with 90 million others. It was excellent, the red deepens as the sunlight drops away from the bright red rock. Of course after the sun goes down there is the 90 million mass exodus back to the resort.

Now here’s a funny thing, all around the rock there are signs telling you of sacred Aboriginal ground, not to take any photos and to be respectful yet here are 90 million spectators snapping and recording the sun going down over the sacred rock, interesting…….

Back to our tent and of course it’s dark now so on with our camp issue rechargeable lamp. It was good for about an hour, then I got my reserve torch out to put stuff away and the bulb blew in my torch. You can imagine the language and the witty, helpful comments from Mrs D. After getting things away using the light from my mobile phone we slept very well.

The following day we walked around the base of the rock, a good 10k stroll in full sun with a full fly escort!! It semed like a lot longer walking round. Again a multitude of no photo signs and everyone snapping away. You can actually do a climb of the rock to the summit cairn but again it is seen as disrespectful and it Is actually quite steep and dangerous. Having said that there were plenty climbing up. The first section is the steepest and you have the added security of a huge chain to grab hold of and heave yourself up. I chose not to do the climb. By the time we got back to the car we were flied out, hot, sweaty and ready for a big shower!!

The evening was quiet, our lamp had been recharged but not much better so I sat in the laundry room with my laptop doing some notes in real light. I got chatting to some Ozzies who had done the climb and were saying how hard it was and that they were on all fours at the top to try to keep them falling down the shear steep sides – wise move abstaining I thought….

Next day was flying to Cairns day but we didn’y fly ‘til 3.30pm so we had the morning at the Olgas which I have to say were more fascinating than Ayers Rock. We did part of 2 walks and wished we’d spent all day at the Olgas and today at the rock. You don’t know ‘til you see it but there it is. The Olgas were great, many huge rounded forms higher and much bigger than Ayers Rock. We also saw a couple of dingos (a type of wild dog) out there too.

Time was running out so we had to get to the airport to get on with the final phase of our trip. We had really enjoyed Red Central and found the landscape superb but the flies a real nuisance. Kings Creek was excellent and Ayers Rock Campground very disappointing. Never the less returning to a different part of Red Central was stored away for future reference, hmmmmm we’ll see.

Meningie to Alice Springs and Red Central

Our run into Adelaide went well and the rush hour traffic going into the city was not too bad. We flew at 1045hrs so we were at the airport for 0830hrs. A very relaxed affair it was too with arrivals and departures using the same halls. Flight left on time and we were in “the Alice” before noon. After retrieving our bags and picking up our second Hyundai Getz we headed into town for some shopping.

Lovely big signage welcoming you into town, splendid “red” landscape, dry and starved of water. We found the supermarket in the middle of town and had our first sightings of aborigines in vast numbers. The Alice had an almost an uncomfortable feel to it and we were pretty glad we weren’t staying there. Maybe we didn’t give it enough time and it could have been better but we were glad to be off.

We had 300 miles to drive to get to Kings Creek Station near Kings Canyon and it was hell hot!! With our little car fuelled up off we went…….

The landscape was so different to anything we had seen up to press it was like being in real Australia if that makes any sense. It was wild, dry and miles of bush and bush roads. We were hoping to get to our digs before dark so we had little time to stop. Not that there was much different to see which warranted stopping anyway. We did stop to fuel up as you never know where the next gas station will be out here on these roads. Out here they have road trains, huge trucks with trailers up to 30 metres long, some load. Still the roads are very long and straight so no problem really.

We arrived at the station at 1700hrs. Kings Creek Station is a huge camel ranch. It also has accommodation to serve nearby Kings Canyon. We were booked into a fabric sided cabin – a tent in reality but it was OK. Beds, a light and fly nets everywhere. These more than proved their usefulness as soon as the sun went down. Red Central turned into bug central! Never seen so many bugs in varying shapes and sizes.

We were BBQing outside and there were giant moths, stick insects as big as your hand, praying mantis’ all over the place and no end of other unidentifiable beetles and bugs grovelling around. Some sadly ended up being BBQd. (Not eaten tho’.) After a beer and some grub and a poor attempt at bug identifying we retired to our tent.

Now remember the famous sandflies in NZ?? Ohh yess, what a nuisance they were. Well here we have what appears to be the humble housefly, only hundreds of them trying to get up your nose, in your mouth and all over your face!! Mmmmm lovely, the only thing is that they don’t bite they are just a massive tiring nuisance as your are constantly waving your hands about trying to get rid of them. These annoying little sh*ts are the day time problem in Red Central.

Back to Kings Creek Station, this is the place where we were supposed to be doing a camel ride at sunrise but sadly all the big camels were out being herded somewhere and it was cancelled. There were a few camels knocking around but these were only 5 months old and not big enough to carry anyone. Very cute though. The cancellation was met with some relief from Mrs D who was not too keen I think and was reliving her uneasy memories of riding George in Glenorchy!!

Breakfast here was included with the deal so we headed off to the kitchen for our bushmans brekkie which was bacon, egg, toast and plenty of tea. It was a huge kitchen as they also did breakfast for passing tour buses on their way to Kings Canyon from Ayers Rock. Nice little earner they have going there.

The following day it was a hot, sunny, dry and the flies were on top form. After breakfast we drove down to Kings Canyon and did a superb rim walk around the top of the canyon. The rock colours and formations were excellent. We got back to the car exhausted with the heat. We then went to a sacred aboriginal spring, another short walk on the way back to the ranch. On our way back from the spring we saw a huge lizard stood on the path in front of us. Funny, you see signs warning you of all the wildlife you may encounter so you spend all day staring into the bush looking for it and then it appears on the path in front of you!! Anyway he was quite a big guy must have been 2 feet long. Needless to say we hung around and watched ‘til he cleared off we didn’t want to disturb him you know.

In the evening after another BBQ we got chatting to 2 Irish guys – Derek & Charlie. Derek lived and worked on an Aboriginal reservation near Ayers Rock and had been in Oz since 1975. Charlie lived and worked in Goa in India and was over to see his brother as they had not seen each other for twenty years!! Mrs D asked the obvious question “what was the first thing you said when you saw your brother after 20 years?” In true Irish style the reply was “lets go for a beer!!” We had a very jolly evening chatting with them and even shared a quick star gaze before we retired to bed. The skies were superb as there was zero light pollution out there.

The following day we exchanged a few words with them before we set off to Ayers Rock or Uluru and they headed up to the Alice.

An excellent time was had at Kings Creek Station and we were unsure that our digs at the rock would be as good, we will see.

Port Fairy to Meningie

There is a small headland out of Port Fairy called Griffith Island which we had a walk around before we set off to Kingston SE (south East.) It was very good. It was home to some wallabies and ‘roos along with a shearwater bird colony. We had a splendid early morning walk around the island. We saw plenty of ‘roos, wallabies and shearwaters. We are turning into a right pair of twitchers!!

The journey to Kingston went well with a couple of stops along the way, nothing noteworthy just functional brew and lunch stuff. At Kingston we had to find some food supplies so we walked into town. It was Saturday afternoon and apart from a giant lobster outside a shop (see pic) the place was closed!! We did eventually find a shop and all was well. Back at our digs, we had a caravan – oh no!! It was actually very good as it had all the usual stuff, kitchen, bathroom etc but it also had a DVD player and they rented DVDs out at the site office!! We were proper vegged out, 2 movies food and wine a super night was had by all.

Up and away early the following day we were heading for a motel in Meningie. Just as a “note” as Mrs D would say, all along the coast from Bells Beach to Meningie is a notoriously dangerous coastline. The first part known as the Great Ocean Road and then the Shipwreck Coast followed by the Heritage Coast. Now lets get down to it here, this coastline now famous for scenery is really just a memory to all the fallen ships, men and wrecks that are strewn along its coastal length. There is reference to boats, men and wreckage sites all the way along and we are misguided to believe we are here for the scenery when in actual fact we are to pay our respects to all the fallen ships and men – some heroes and some not.

Sorry, I digress again….we are on our way to Meningie which is our last stop on this part of the journey before we fly out to Kings Canyon and Ayers Rock or Red Central as it is known locally. Not far from Meningie we had a small detour to a pelican colony – twitchers binos at the ready – there was a short walk out to a lookout at a colony on an island just off the mainland. Really going to the lookout was a waste of time unless you had NASAs binos but the bonus was that these huge birds were flying over our heads in droves. There must have been hundreds if not thousands of them. They all fly in formation like the red arrows too – most impressive. I spent ages trying to get some good pix whilst Mrs D’s twitching interests dwindled commenting that I would have thirty million pictures the same again.

We moved on and got to Meningie. Nice little Motel right on the beach, with yes you guessed, pelicans sitting on the beach. We went into town and had a brief walk around and went back to prepare our bags for another flight tomorrow. We had around 100 miles to get to Adelaide airport so it was a 6 o’clock start the following day.

Apollo Bay to Port Fairy

Fairly early start on what is alleged to be the most photographed section of the great ocean road. We were heading for an hotel in Port Fairy. Our first stop was the famous 12 apostles. These are sandstone pillars of rock dotted just out to sea stood like sentries guarding the coast. They were quite a spectacle but again a busy touristy spot. After the obligatory photoshoot we headed off down the road. Another couple of stops at more scenic turnouts, more photos and pleasant vistas they were too.

We finally came to the big town of Warrnambool which was just before the Tower Hill area which we were going. Tower Hill is as I said a volcanic crater where wildlife has returned and man has not put it there. There is a tourist drive in and around the crater and several walks from various points around the drive. Best of all the whole thing is free, imagine that in the UK!!

As soon as we drove into the crater we saw lots of “big red” kangaroos so we stopped to take a few pix. As we stopped we also noticed a couple of emus wandering around. We took some ‘roo pix and the emus were getting closer so we retreated to the safety of the car. The emus – which I might add – are quite tall birds were walking around the car. We sat and had a brew watching the goings on and noticed that the ‘roos had also sneaked up on us and were watching us from quite close above. All things here were obviously undisturbed by the presence of people. We moved on and parked near the visitor centre. We then set off to do a walk but went to the loo first, or at least we tried to as it was surrounded by emus. After the loos we set off into the crater walk passing more ‘roos, emus and lots of other pretty birds as we went. It really was quite a spectacle.
After our interlude with the wildlife we headed on to Port Fairy and our digs for the night. A splendid room in an historic hotel, it was OK. We had a walk into town for a beer and some grub before bed, interesting little town.

Today is the end of the Great Ocean Road. Up away and onto Kingston South East tomorrow via the shipwreck coast.

We have to say that the Great Ocean Road is a very pretty drive with some stunning beaches and viewpoints along the way. It didn’t really live up to the hype it was given to us by so many, sorry guys.