Mossman’s gorgeous Gorge and then once more Up North! – Day 292 – 6 November

Today we were going to try and take things just that little bit easier if we could so we had a bit of a lie in before a nice bit of breakfast, then we took a visit to Mossman’s library to try and research our imminent visit to the Daintree Forest region which looked stunning. Again here we burdened ourselves with yet more leaflets in readiness for our journey and then went off to find the Gorge.

There’s a Gorge behind you!

The Mossman Gorge park entrance was quite a new looking building and the place seemed busy enough but from the entrance to the there was actually a shuttle bus but because we are quite keen on keeping fit – not because we are somewhat thrifty cheapskates – we decided against the bus and took the stroll up the hill. Along the way we walked past a few houses that seemed to be owned by the local indigenous, the kids seemed to be having a greta laugh as I suppose you would with all this to play in! The signs seem to try and put you off walking by telling you that the aborigine are not keen on interacting but as we passed we did get the odd smile and wave along the way, so I am not so sure how accurate this all is.

One of the exploding Fig Trees!

We trudged on a fair ways until we finally reached the beginning of the walk, which is also where the lookouts and the swimming places are but the walk had to come first before we could have the chance to relax in the cool waters. It was quite hot and humid underneath the trees so we decided to talk the walk at quite a leisurely pace.

Everything below the water is blue and frozen!

Whilst there was not a great deal of wildlife to be seen it was a really nice green and somewhat muggy walk. The trees were quite amazing in their own right cutting all kinds of shapes in the forest in particular a fig tree which looked as though it had been blasted apart from the inside in an alien-like reconstruction whilst some of the twigs looked like they should be in another film, possibly Lord of the Rings because these looked like at any moment they would come to life and picked you up there seemed to be that much life in them, giving the walk a bit of a spooky edge. It was not too unforgiving a walk though and we were soon enough back to the the start of the walk, so time for us to relax!

A Boyd’s Forest Dragon

So it was that we stripped off and soaked ourselves in the swimming area, it took us a bit of time to be able to acclimatise to the relative cold of the river’s waters. There were a good many people with the same idea one of them being a fellow who told all of us assembled that his name was Norman and to be fair although he was possibly a Witchety Grub short of a Bush Tucker trial, he still seemed to be a nice enough guy and soon enough made friends, not a bad way to be really. It was a nice way to end the walk but as soon as we got out the water we were hit by the shivers so took the walk back to visitor centre at quite a brisk pace. Here we grabbed a bite to eat before then setting off further north to see if we could reach the Daintree Forest area by nightfall.

Goodbye Mossman Gorge!

Okay so we had intended not to drive today but we wanted to try and get as much time as we could in the Daintree area. So we drove until we reached the Daintree River where we had a short wait for the ferry to return back over from the other side and then it was our turn to be transported over the waters. The flatbed ferry was quite new to us and although only a short trip it was a most gentle way to travel. We kept an eye out to see if we could see any Crocs but they were all staying out the way, probably scared of us … !!!

A ferry a most delightful way to traverse the Daintree River!

Once on the other side of the river it was like the levels of greenery had been upped once again, from the green of Mossman and the gorge walk to this ‘super-greenery’! Even the drive was most excellent and the campsite we found was simply an extension of the the scenery we had seen along the way. The campsite was one of those that put the wild back into camping but it was great. There was no-one else there and the camp kitchen besides ourselves only contained some surly looking Staghorn beetles that we left to look after the few beers we had placed in the camp fridge. Whilst dining and after wrestling our beers off the beetles we then started being dive-bombed by lots of smaller kamikaze beetles making our dining experience quite an unusual affair.

 

 

 

A bit of a walk and listening to a bit of a talk before returning to Alice Springs! – Day 285 – 30 October

Passing yesterday’s rocky adventure on the way to the new rocky one!

Today we wanted to spend a bit more time at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and go and see a bit closer up the other ‘rocks’, those that we had yesterday seen from the air in the helicopter – Kata Tjuta! We planned to try and complete at least one walk today and if our little legs were not aching too much then perhaps follow it up with a second but even though it was still only early in the day it was already warming up towards being quite a scorcher.

The new rocks are in town …. Talking Heads!

Whereas Uluru is a monolith, that is a single huge rock, Kata Tjuta one the other hand is an entirely different creature as it is an agglomeration – a mass of smaller rocks all held together – proving that I do listen and/or do my homework before writing this tosh … lol! The indigenous people call them the ‘Olgas’ meaning a load of heads and as we drove closer we could see what they meant, the rocks really did look like a group of people having a bit of a natter – okay they would have to be very very large people but then I do have a quite an imagination!

Walpa Gorge – a big red corridor!

The first walk we did here was a shortish one to the Valley of the Winds and along the way we saw the Olgas faces up close and personal and although the rock looked a bit like Uluru, they also did not if you know what I mean! However, there were quite a few people with the same idea but it still turned out to be a good stretch for the legs. It was a fair bit quieter and to be honest a fair bit hotter on our next walk – the Walpa Gorge walk. The gorge was quite a nice stroll but as the walls closed in it was almost like being in a strange but huge red corridor. What made it even worse or better depending upon your viewpoint, was that the walk was not too long as our legs were now starting to feel a bit worse for wear especially after our exertions yesterday around ‘the rock’. At Walpa though we had hoped to see a bit of wildlife, especially some birdlife but we ended up hearing much more than we actually saw.

Too big heads in the foreground and a few more big heads in the back …

It was great for us to have had a closer view of the other great rock feature in the area and as we drove back towards civilisation we came across a lay-by with a viewpoint that gave us one last opportunity to view both great rocky sights before we headed on back into town.

Wooden weapons, would have been much more useful for us if they would work against the flies!!

Once back in town we had the opportunity to take advantage of one of the free things you can do here by listening to some aborigine bush yarns! We arrived at the small green in the centre of the little town at the appointed time and a chunky looking aborigine, who we soon enough found out was called Leroy, rolled up with a box that seemed full of ‘stuff’. Peeking out the box, we recognised the boomerangs but had no idea what the other vicious looking equipment was. Our storyteller was here to talk about the weapons the aborigines used for hunting in the outback possibly before the invent of the supermarkets! Leroy turned out to be quite a cool guy with a very laid back story-telling style and he explained to us all about how the roles in aborigine society are quite divided – the men do the hunting and the women the gathering and never the twain shall meet! He did not think of the division in their society as being ‘sexist’ rather that men and women are taught different skills to make them better prepared for doing the role they are assigned. I suppose when finding your next meal might mean the difference between life and death mixing the two roles would be a luxury the indigenous could ill afford simply on the off chance that it would pay off! The weapons were really cool but probably deadly in the right hands and Leroy taught us some new facts, like that there is no word as boomerang in Aborigine – so what do they say when they need to borrow it I wondered? Leroy had the answer, he said it was called it a ‘kuliand’ or something that sounded a bit like that – oh yes after my earlier factual success this is possibly quite a craptastical fact(let)! However, some of the woods the weapons are made from have to be treated beforehand to make them hard enough to break animal bones and the like! It turned out that the indigenous peoples also invented the very first glue from a sap which had a very high content of silica (from the sand) and this made the glue set like rock but then when it was reheated it would then soften! With stories such as these, Leroy kept us all enthralled, it was great to listen to him and every now and then he would pass round a weapon or something for us to have a bit of a closer look at. We both thought it was great to find out more about aboriginal life as it seems to be quite difficult here to find yourself one-on-one with an indigenous person and the things that you want to find out more about you don’t really want to ask the questions for! It was a great and very fitting way to end our trip to the centre of Oz but now it was time to make our way back out again.

The Mount in the distance!

Job done we once again jumped into our box-on-wheels – well our little camper van – and off we zipped back towards our next camp back near Alice Springs once again. On the way and probably because the weather was that much better than when we last travelled these roads there were many new wonders to see! We stopped to have a look at a huge salt lake with what looked like an island in the middle and this was across from the viewpoint for Mount Connell which looked like a huge plateau away in the distance – all these things we had managed to miss eh!

The island in the middle of the salt lake!

Towards the end of the day and nearing the campsite it turned out to be a tale of two battles, one against our ever-dwindling petrol reserves which we managed to win – though God only knows what we would have done if we had lost that one – and the second was a battle against those formidable foe, ‘the ants’ and this one we well and truly lost – damnable critters they are!

 

 

 

From entirely different angles – the Red Rock that is Uluru! – Day 284 – 29 October

There were many, many more photos taken before this one – we were waiting that long!!!

We had set our alarms for Sunrise today as we very much wanted to go and see Uluru as the sun rose over it. However, as it happened we had set our alarm clock far too early as there was no Sun nor anyone else around for that matter. That was only at first anyhow, there was still quite a while before the Sun was actually ‘rising’ so we waited, as the crowd grew, with bated breath! I must admit it turned out to be not the greatest of spectacles but it wassail very watchable and to be fair, compared to many of the other ‘unmissable’ sunrise sights, this was probably one of the best we had seen on our travels.

Liz looking somewhat pensively at Uluru!

We then drove towards the rock itself and carried on a bit further round it to a car park at the rock’s base to start on the walk and if we could take in the free guided walk – the Marlu Walk! The guides were two of the park’s rangers, an indigenous guy called Paul and a trainee and as they walked along telling us stories we followed along behind. The walk was quite informative but it was a strange kind of informative in that some of the things about the rock and how it interweaved with aborigine life Paul could tell us, whilst others are secrets of the tribe and these could not be told due to the laws of the aborigines. One of the stories that he alluded to actually took place over several locations, of which Uluru was but one but the only portion of the story our guide could relate was the part about Uluru itself as here we were, the other parts of the story could only be told at the appropriate location. I actually really liked the thought of that, parts of a story being told at the particular place that relating to the story so you could soak up the vibe as it were. A story that would literally get you on your feet because if you do not go then the story stops – brilliant really! Paul also told us that some of the stories he had could not be told were because of gender, others because they were simply ‘lore’ that a person learns these as they grow and they cannot be told to others. It is truly amazing in this day and age where everybody seems to want to share every iota of their lives – good and bad – over the internet that these people hold onto their stories as being so very precious. It is as if the stories are the embodiment of their history and indeed what they themselves are and they really do seem to hold this true in their hearts.

Me and You and a Whole Lotta Uluru!

As we walked, Paul talked and it was about when talking about the rock that his speech became most poignant. You could not climb up the rock presently because the chain that you can use to pull yourself up had been vandalised and the authorities had no idea who the ‘vandals’ were. Paul said that whilst it was up to the individual whether or not they wished to climb, the indigenous people themselves regard the place with the same sanctity that we would a religious building, say like St Paul’s or a mosque or possibly Stonehenge and they ask that we ‘outsiders’ respect the place too. For me it was the fact that Paul had given us glimpses of what could be told and what could not that made me feel that this is not a game to the Aborigines and I think this, more than anything he could have actually said which made me feel that the rock would not benefit from having my dirty great ‘plates of meat’ (= feet) running up and down its face. This is their culture and I think that although we all seem to spend a lot of time trying to be so very similar perhaps we should see good in the differences there are in cultures too and champion these and respect them too. I told you, this travelling is getting me in touch with my more hippy side!

I am not sure what it all means – possibly a recipe for Wichity Grubs!

 

We thanked the rangers and we continued to walk around the base of the rock on our own. The walk does not keep you close to the base all the time, sometimes it moves away from the rock to lead you away from those portions of the rock which are more sacred to the indigenous people. The walk also, at places, has signs requesting that no photos are to be taken, again to preserve the sanctity of these shrine areas. We did respect the wishes the signs conveyed to us and so kept the camera stowed well away.

Liz at this point still somewhat lively – this was not to last!

It was quite a struggle in the heat as the walk was quite a distance at 10.6km and as the Sun shone brightly so the rock (and our faces!) seemed to redden. Finally though after what seemed like us trudging on for an age we could once again see our little white van there in the distance, at the car park where we had left it – hoorah. Good old Suzy seemed none the worse for our walk but we had taken a bit of a beating both physically and perhaps mentally … lol! I am not entirely sure that we realised just how tired we were when we finished the walk but we went straight to the cultural centre and once there we started watching a film about how the indigenous people have retrieved the land and the rock from the government and during it we both started falling asleep … gosh!!

 

Hugely huge no matter which way you look at it!

So it was that we decided to call it a morning and return to the campsite to try and grab a few zzz’s before we would be having our afternoon’s entertainment – a helicopter flight around Uluru! No sooner though that we had laid our heads down then we were awoken by the helicopter tour folk ringing us, to ask if we could be ready in the next half hour for our trip – so much for us sleeping BUT our wake-up call incentive was that as well as Uluru that they would take us and the other couple in the group to Kata Tjuta – the Valley of the Winds.

Into our waiting helicopter ………!!

We jumped up out of our makeshift bed and soon enough made ourselves ready and by the time the guides rolled up we were chomping at the bit. In the van already were a young German newlywed couple who would be joining us and soon enough the van whisked us away to our waiting helicopter!

Only now do you start to get a feel for just what a big rock it is – and this is just the bit above the ground!

As you can imagine the flight was absolutely brilliant and the scenery stunning as well. First we flew towards Uluru and although they only allow you so close, this is still enough to get a much better feel for just how big the rock is, it is absolutely huge and then from there it was on to the ‘Olgas’ to go and see one side of them. The reason you cannot do the full circuit is that the other side is where the men do their ‘business’ and so it is not to be seen by outsiders.

Nothing round it for miles and there it is!

From up here you can get more of a feeling why Uluru and Kata Tjuta are both so revered by the aborigines, it what looks a very desolate and flat landscape they stand out just like a couple of skyscrapers would in a small village the difference is that great. It was a fantastic tour and a great hoot, the Germans were really enthralled by our travelling story too which was very nice – and possibly very polite – of them.

The only way to travel … lol!

When we parted at the end of the trip we wished them the very best of times together and waved them off. It had been a great experience to share with them especially with the unexpected upgrade, sometimes we are just too lucky for words!

The Olgas, the lads are all round the other side whooping it up!

Flight done, we were dropped off once more back at our camp where we grabbed a quick bite to eat before going back out in the van to go and see the Sun over Uluru one last time but this time to see it’s setting. The setting was a bit better and we quite enjoyed the photo opportunities it presented but by the time the Sun had said goodbye it was time for us to be leaving too as we needed our beauty sleep.

No matter where you take a photo from it never seems to look real!

So it was back in the van for us and back to the camp to actually hit the hay this time, where we made like lights and were out in an instant.

This started off as just a me and Liz pic and then Uluru only went and photo-bombed it! How we chuckled!

 

Today from the coast Inland – Day 275 – 20 October

Today was going to be yet another long day in the saddle, we were hoping to put a good few kilometres under our belt before our next stop. Australia is a vast place and if you are travelling by road you have to put the miles in but this is a great way to see the place close up as it where. We got off to a good enough start from the campsite we had reached yesterday when we left Broome and we headed off toward a place called Fitzroy Crossing.

The Boab Tree

The journey was quite unremarkable but nice enough and when we reached it the town itself was quite a nice one, where we parked up there was a bit of a ‘greenery’ and under a tree there were a few of the local indigenous older men and women. Once again they looked like they may have been drinking and, as if to back this up, when a police car drove by the people under the tree looked very shifty indeed. It seems a great shame along on our travels as we have often been told of the great many subsidies and grants the indigenous people get but I often wonder if anyone ever asked them what it is they really want. They seemed to have lived so very long without the great white man’s intervention and now looking at them, they really look like a people that are beaten down and lost. It is quite heartbreaking really. It seems that whilst Australia wants the Aborigine art and the music and the story because it captures the imagination and is excellent for tourism I am not so sure that Australia really wants the people themselves.

My wife under a very small (head) tent … lol!

At Fitzroy Crossing we decided to go for a bit of a walk and although there were three to choose from we decided to go for the shortest or least exerting because the day was just so very hot. So off we went to a place called Geikie Gorge but even before we started walking we had to stop and have a bite and a drink but even this small amount of effort caused us to sweat bucket loads. So after our wee bit of sustenance we donned our fly net head covers and off we went.

The Gorge looking just gorgeous!

The walk was quite a nice one with some huge boulders strewn all about it and because of the recent (unbearably) hot temperatures the whole place was dry, arid and desert-like. We could have been walking through a movie set for a cowboy film, the gorge just had that kind of look about it – a great place for a bushwhacking or an ambush! During the stroll we kept seeing some very large white crickets jumping about the place but they were always quicker than me or my camera for that matter, possibly just a bit camera-shy. At one point we even thought that we had sighted a Rock Wallaby but whatever it was, it was just moving too quick to tell and in the blazing heat we were finding it hard to reach moving slow.

A Magpielark just larking about I suppose!

After all our exertion we needed another drink or two before we could even think about setting off and then it was another long drive to get us to our next refuge – Halls Creek. Just before hitting the campsite we stopped at yet another extortionately priced petrol station and strangely enough I was wearing my tee shirt from when we were volunteering at Tacloban, which has the Philippines flag on it and funnily enough the petrol pump guy was from the Philippines. He asked me if we had enjoyed his country and about the volunteering, exclaiming that we had done something both good and worthwhile but not did not stop him from charging me full price … Doh! Oh well if he let everyone off who had been to the Philippines I supposed his takings would have dropped somewhat!!!

Parts of Oz almost look like they could be Mars they are just so very desolate!

Once ‘fuelled up’ we made the last dash to our campsite trying to get there before it got dark. We failed miserably yet again in our task and ended up setting up our meagre camp, well sorting our bedding out in the van, whilst it was quite pitch black.Then once we got settled the cows, if that is what they were, tested our nerves with some very strange bellowing sounds. It must have been the influence of what we had seen earlier at Broome but the sounds they were making reminded me that in the dim and distant past dinosaurs probably walked these lands and although the hubbub being made by these noisy animals were a possible tribute to those bygone creatures it did not exactly make for a great night’s sleep!!

 

Big – Breaks, Caves and Capes – Day 257 – 2 October

It must take a bit more than one night of ‘roughing it’ to get used to it all I suppose as we woke up far too early. Thinking about it I am not too sure sleeping in a Wicked van exactly counts as being ‘rough’ but who knows. The Kookaburras had gone anyhow and taken their surliness with them but even then the day seemed to be taking its time in brightening up.

I got underway with the breakfast whilst Liz tidied up and tidied away the bedding. We then sat back and dined on omelette and beans but already the outdoors life was once more beginning to seduce us and by the time we had dined and had ourselves a cup of tea under the canopy of the trees we felt more than a match for whatever today could throw at us.

Prevelly – the Missus jumping whilst attempting to eat her cardigan, I thought she had eaten enough at breakfast!!

We then scarpered away from the campsite and I must admit to us not actually putting any money in the honesty box and furthermore I am ashamed to say that it was quite a thrill that we had outwitted the honesty system and not paid a bean – at his rate we will be able to afford to eat almost everyday – hoorah! In this area there were a number of caves we could visit but the first we went to was just a wee bit too expensive so we drove on to the next and the countryside during the drive was a delight. This area is carved up into loads of vineyards, farmer’s fields and the national parks and woodlands, really nice to drive through and you can almost feel it revitalising you and dissipating the aches we were feeling earlier in the morning.

I practised my surfing quite far from the water at first ….

We decided to go and have a look around the Margaret river area and perhaps go for a walk there but after chatting to the ladies at the Tourist Information Bureau nearby we settled on continuing a bit further to a place called Prevelly on the coast to go and stretch our legs. By now the sky was turning steel grey and quite angry looking but we were not deterred so we drove off towards the place, set on having a wander round. Upon reaching Prevelly the winds were high but still reasonably warm so we parked up at a little car park near a children’s playground and took the short walk to the water’s edge. The waves looked really dramatic, real surfing waters, the entire place had a wild but quite a rugged look about it without looking too bleak or melodramatic. We took a walk along the beach to where the Margaret river reaches the sea and then back again, along the way we read one of the boards that told the story about Surfers Point the reason why the place has been put on the map. The most challenging of the breaks are the Super Tubes where the waves break over sharp reef in shallow water – if you fall off here you would probably end up looking like you had been through a cheese grater … urgh!

… but I did get closer …

Besides the violence of the waves and the stormy grey of the skies there were lots of beautiful wild flowers covering the wild grasses and the ground around the dunes close to the beach. The place was so very atmospheric that we just drove a short way up the hill on the way out and we found a lay-by where we could better survey the scene. Even better, in our new mobile home we could have a little break with a cuppa and drag out our folding chairs so we were quite comfortable as we surveyed it all. We remembered that Prevelly was a place that Neil came to surf so he must be either very good or not a little crazy, though my guess is that perhaps he has an even mix of the two!

The caves were very beautiful!

After another drive it was then to go and find the caves – Ngiliga Caves at that, this place like lots of Aborigine place names along the way, are quite a mouthful. Over here in Australia the inhabitants seem to names their places and streets after the first thing they see or that comes to mind, the Aborigines though just seem to throw letters together, I am sure that is just their language but it does seem a mouthful. The caves lie underneath the limestone ridge that forms the headland of Cape Naturaliste. For the Aborigines the caves have a fascinating association between a good spirit called Ngilgi and an evil spirit called Wolgine. Either way it was a great find and made even better by the guide’s real enthusiasm for the place, as she put it she was a true spelunker (!!). The caves had loads of small stalagtites as well as some halactites, something I had never heard of before. Halacites, so our guide informed us quite excitedly, are rock formations that simply beggar belief and defy all explanation and she knows this because she follows such things and knows that very clever people have tried explaining them but have been lost for words! My explanation, though I must admit to not being one of the world’s greatest minds in ‘rockology’ or any other ology for that matter, is that they are ‘tites’ which look like they have been disfigured and are bent this way and that in order to perplex the greatest minds! As I said the caves were good though but Liz did get caught trying to touch one of the ‘tites’ and told off … lol! Like I say it had been a really good visit and so much the better for the guide being so enthusiastic about the place and the subject matter.

This is rock, how on earth does that happen eh!

After the caves we then continued on to the cape, Cape Naturaliste to see the lighthouse and, if we were lucky, possibly to see whales as well. From where we parked up it was a nice walk down to the viewing platforms which were perched high on the cliffs above the waters but it was great vantage point. We looked and we looked and we looked to that point where we even thought we were seeing things but the whales they eluded us this time but we can wait, we will see whales oh yes, we will see whales! The lighthouse looked good though (yes I know it is not as good as a whale!!) but we did not venture in as there were a lot of touristy people around it but the whole thing had been a nice detour.

Whilst we took a selfie, our heads are covering up the frolicking whales!!!

We left here and just had time for one more stop-off before going to find camp and this was at a place that Sue had recommended to us – Meelup Beach. Now this turned out be a really nice little beach but as the skies were greying further it was not at its best so after a quick run around we set off again. First a quick stop off to a shop to buy provisions – a couple of beers to celebrate surviving two days of our wicked tour of Oz. Then on to our next campsite and first off we actually managed to miss it! It was quite well hidden though, a grassy land with lots camper vans on it! Anyhow we soon enough turned around and went back and even then it did not seem like there was any room for us but everyone breathed in and we fitted in nicely on the end though, that’s just the backpacking spirit!

Possibly poisonous!

Once ‘camped’ we had ourselves another very nice meal and toasted ourselves as we drank our beers, whilst we did this a guy called Dennis popped over to chew the fat and generally give us tips on good apps that we could use whilst travelling as well as giving us the lowdown on places to visit and all that. We did notice though that the place had no toilet so I hope when the beers work their way through us there are not too many people about whilst we go for a piddle!

My wife at one with nature … lol!