Australia Day 11-- Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Woke up at 530. Jason was awake as I quickly got ready to start the twenty minute walk to the casino to be picked up for my emu run day trip to Uluru. He offered to drive me which I could not pass up. Waited about 10 minutes before the bus pulled up and mic and mark the tour guides picked us up and off we went. Two hours to mount ebenezer a small little gas station with toilets. Ordered a egg bacon and cheese breakfast and enjoyed it outside. Watched a movie on the sacred Uluru and it's history. Alia learned about the desert oaks who have roots starlight down to the water table. Mature ones look like normal oaks whereas juvenile ones haven't reaches water yet and are all furry.


Another two hours before we arrived to kuta uta. Walked into a gulch for 50 minutes before heading to Uluru. It is about 96 degrees here (and I am not complaining as it is the coldest day in twenty years back in Minnesota). Next we stopped at the Uluru hotel complete with souvenir gift shop where I picked up a hand painted boomerang and a fridge magnet for Chrissi o. Per her request. Checked my email and headed back in the bus with a diet coke to Ayers Rock. Also received lunch here. A ham sandwich with Tomato cucumber lettuce and butter. Mmmmm. About another hour we arrived and stopped at the cultural center. Aboriginal paintings are going for about 300$ there. Then we went to the first base hike. It was a 1k hike in the dead of the sunlight.

Stopped at a kitchen where the aboriginals used to grind up fruits and nuts. As well as a watering hole. Ended this trek at an 80 km waterfall (which obviously was not flowing). Then back on the bus. At this point I had already finished 2 liters of water. (No kidney stones for me this trip..... Knock on wood). Back on the coach bus. Next we continued the drive around the base learning about the different aboriginal folklore of the rock. Climbing is not allowed as it is very dangerous and damages the sacred rock. Next stop was another hike this time in the shade to the hunting teaching caves and a second water hole. Back in the bus and off to sunset peak.

Aboriginal women come and sell official paintings for rather inexpensive and the sucker I am purchased two for 50$. Hopedully I'll find somewhere in my house to put them.

Everyone had a chair and mic and mark made bratwurst dinner complete with potatoe and Lettuce salad and sparkling white wine. Met Theresa and Ariana. Theresa is from Munich germany (don't worry, I'll be staying with we for Oktoberfest if all works out) and Ariana is from melbourne moving to Darwin in the air force. Great girls. We had some good conversation as we watched te rock turn red with the sunset.



Immediately after sunset (like I am talking 30 seconds past the minute) we boarded the bus to start our five hour ride back to Alice springs.

Hit a kangaroo on the way home. Thing jumped outta no where. Then back to the casino where Jason picked me up.

Off to the watering hike in the morning and off to cairns at 5pm. Found a host.
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Australia Day 10-- Alice springs

Woke up about 8 am packed up my clothes showered and waited for Sarah's mom to pick me up and bring me to the airport at 10. Sat outside on a chair and it was already 85 degrees (high of 95). She arrives 15 minutes early (you called it Sarah) and dropped me off at the airport.

First time flying quantas air and everything was automated. Printed my boarding pass and my bag tag at a kiosk then went to an automated bag drop where I put my bag on and the machine read the tag and took it away. (Hopefully I did it right and my bags show up in Alice). Then I went searching for food and a chai. Found a breakfast sandwich place and a free internet computer where I sat and searched fr a host in cairns as the original host still hasn't returned with his phone number. Sent about 10 requests, fingers crossed someone is able to host me.

Boarded the plane and got my window seat. Next to I swear an aboriginal. He smelt of BO horribly. And fit the description. And it is a 3 hour flight. Vomit. Basically I breathed into my pillow the entire time.


Arrived to Alice sprigs airport and deplaned on the tarmack and found Jason my host waiting for me at the gate. (To get through security, you just get scanned. There is Noone checking the boarding pass or identification) went to the baggage claim, grabbed my bag (second one off the plane!) and headed the 15km into Alice sprigs. Jason is an army guy stationed here and has to work the night shift tonight. So I was on my own. Stopped by the Alice springs sin and had my picture taken then Dropped off my stuff at his house and he took me atop the war memorial hill overlooking the city (he was right there really isn't much to it). Returned home and be suggested I feed the wallabies and catch dinner at the casino. Sounds good! Gave me a key and dropped me off at the wallabies.


1$ paid for a bag of dietary pellets for the rock wallabies to eat. There was a group of like 5 aboriginal kiddos attempting to feed the wallabies dirt, so I gave them my other dollar coin so they could buy feed. There were female wallabies too with babies in their pouches. They would grab onto you hand while they were eating. Super cute. Slightly sharp claws. After about an hour I decided to walk back towards Jason's house and stop by the casino for dinner. First, I had to walk along the "river" which is a dried up bed filled with sunken aboriginals. Apparently the people of Alice do not like the aboriginals that inhabit Alice as they Are the drunkards that get kicked off the reservations. They just cause problems and scream and swear at white people. Sweet. Here I am a white American girl walking a mile back to Jason's house. Walked past like three different groups (with confidence) and it was fine. Did not make eye contact just walked swiftly away. Phew.


Made it to the casino where I ordered a cider and a kangaroo steak. Have to order it rare to medium (so I did medium rare) with some sort of sauce. Too me my pager and went outside to find somewhere to sit. As it was about 75 degrees outside with a light breeze. Gorgeous. There were two dudes sitting at a tabletop for six, I asked if I could crash their party as I didn't want to take up a whole table to myself. Justin and Jai from Adelaide. They immediately made fun of my accent (however they couldn't hear the Minnesotan in me haha) and we talked the night away. Buzzer went off and I retrieved my kangaroo. Very gamey, similar to venison back home. Jai and justin are roofing contractors hired to fly out to Alice to work on some roofs in the dead of the day. Gross. Jai is also a surfer and began telling me about the different deadly creatures to watch out for. Apparently I have already survived the great white shark area. Alice is known for its snakes, Darwin for the crocs (ha! Not something I was warned about and definitely not on the itinerary) cairns has the deadly spiders--sigh. We also made fun of the Vegemite and then I informed them about couchsurfing. About 10 they offered me a ride home which I great fully accepted so I didn't have to run into any drunk aboriginals. They dropped me off, I did one load of laundry (complete with dryer) set out my stuff for the am and fell asleep.


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Australia Day 9-- rottnest island

Sarah and I were up and out of the house by 715 to catch our 815 ferry from Fremantle to rottnest island. Rottnest is home to cockers. Marsupial rodents that are about the size of a basketball. And only live on Western Australia. Rottnest is a 20 minute ferry ride out in the Indian Ocean and is free of cars. You have to hike or bike the entire island. It has numerous different beaches and some homesteaders. There is a general store and a dome (nice coffee hot breakfast food chain) as well as some original homes and a hotel complete with beach bar. It was one of the original English settlements and it's name stands for rats nest island because of the cockers.

We arrived early to Fremantle so Sarah drive me around the town complete with the coffee street and the Fremantle prison which was in use until 1993. The original prisoners were responsible for building it. We then parked the car and got our boarding passes printed in time and boarded the ferry sitting at a 6top with a family if four.


Arrived to rottnest and headed straight to dome for breakfast and a chai. Had the breakfast wrap and a large chai latte. Mmm. Sarah had the big breakfast (eggs bacon mushroom toast tomato). After we set out for the lighthouse met a group from Ireland (Sarah called their accents) and down along the shoreline. Basin beach is the most popular beach, but it was rocky and packed. So we kept going to the next bay which had the gorgeous white sand beach some boats and tons of flies. (Houseflies). I laid out my towel and began soaking up some rays. Sarah went for a walk while I got my tan on. After a few hours (and 9 dead flies later--these flies are dumb flies, I killed them all with my hand as they do not feel you coming and just sit there--and I had hand sanitizer for afterwards) we started the trek back to the main side and the pub. Had a cider both an apple and a pear cider we order the Italian share plate with a bunch of different meats on it and just took in the atmosphere of the island before our 430 ferry ride home.



Once we got back, Sarah drove me around to see the sights of Perth. Along the water front and up to kings hill to overlook the city. Gorgeous. Then we went and picked up Jackie, her roommate who was watching deadly 60. You know. Steve Irwin like dude who travels Australia in search of deadly things. They were catching tiger snakes in Perth. (Freak out) we then went back to Fremantle to the microbrew and enjoyed two plates of nachos and a pizza (and an IPA) outside on the patio. The ambiance is something that northbound needs to recreate. It was quite nice.

It's funny, there is absolutely no tipping of servers in Australia and you usually have to order your food or drinks and then have a seat with a number and they'll being your food to you. This place had table service but we had to pay for it immediately when we ordered.

After dinner we walked the shoreline admired the warning crescent moon over the water and stared at Orion (who is upside down in the Southern Hemisphere). Then returned home to Sarah's, swapped pictures watched two episodes of buck wild and went to bed. Off to Alice springs in the am.

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Australia Day 8--Perth

Arrived at 745 am to find Sarah waiting for me at baggage claim. Oh! I had to wait for my check in at the airport because I scored an emergency exit row window for the three hour flight :-) yes! And I had to pay 40$ in taxi fare to get to the airport not yes. Anyway.

Sarah brought me back to her house where I got a hot shower and to unpack a few of my things. I also did my laundry and we hung it out to dry (life lesson).  Bless her heart, she knew I was couchsurfing so she gave me her bed. Anyway, we made our plans for the weekend vineyards Saturday rottnest island Sunday and departed for some breakfast, coffee, and the caversham wildlife park to feed a kangaroo and pet a koala.

Stopped in midtown for a breakfast omelet and a chai. Then made our way to he animal park. 25$. You could only per the koalas until 1 so we worked our way there. But we fr distracted by the kangaroo part. Actually fed some kangaroos. Saw one with a Joey as well. They were quite small for kangaroos but I don't think I'd wanna be in an enclosure with a big kangaroo, it's like the tigers in Thailand, I'll hold the baby others all day but get me out of the big ones.

After the kangaroos we went to pet the koala. Super soft. They were all sleeping as they typically sleep for atleast twenty hours a day.

After that we went back to the other enclosures. Saw a kookaburra (sitting in an old gum tree....) and a dingo (who does not look capable of stealing a baby), some cockatoos, an emu and I'm sure a few more Australian animals I am forgetting about. Then we headed to the margarette river chocolate favored for some free chocolate samplings.

Then the vineyard your began. Started at a friend vineyard. Meh. Has three samples and moved on. Across the street was a vineyard where we got 16 samples for 5$. Our server was rather stressed. Would pour is a glass basically throw it at us and run away. Thy was until a group of three girls (mom and two daughter in laws) and their sober driver son showed up and started cracking jokes and really loosened up the server. Sarah and I had a great laugh. After we went to a brewery and ordered a meat and cheese tray? Which I had been craving since the beginning of the trip and a hefe.  We decided to go to one more vineyard, the ugly duckling,  sure enough we pulled in and our friends of four were bellied up with a bottle themselves. We invited ourselves to join them ordered a bottle of white and continued to shoot the breeze until the vineyard closed down (a half hour late because of us). The group are kiwis. Meaning they are from New Zealand. The girls are married to the oldest and youngest son and then the boys mom was with as well. The stories that were told are definitely nowhere near appropriate to be discussed on here. But. After we closed down the vineyard they invites us back to the moms caravan in the caravan park. She lives in a camper. And rv actually. And so Sarah and I joined and the stories and wine continued to flow until the wee hours of the night. Best night yet. Meet some random people run into them again. It's like fate we had to spend the rest of the night having the times of our lives. :-) made it back to Sarah's and I was out just before my head even hit the pillow.
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Australia Day 7-- Adelaide

Arrived to the airport after having to catch a cab to the bus station with enough time to drop my bags and buy some breakfast. Boarded and passed out against the window.

Arrived into Adelaide and found my way to the bus stop where I waited about 30 minutes for a bus to brin me to the shopping center where tony was going to pick me up. After only about 3 hours of sleep I was exhausted. Got the bus facebook was tony and waited at the shopping center about 20 minutes for him. We dropped my bags at his house and headed to the city center for a look through the market.

The plan was to tour the am and make some dinner and camp out on the beach and watch the sunset. The problem was it was only about 60 degrees which is way too cold to swim. So we went to the indoor market complete with fresh everything. Grabbed a coffee, which woke me up a little. Picked up some tomatoes and onions and bread to make bruschetta later then went back to semaphore which is the suburb right along the beach where tony lives. We stopped for a flatbread for breakfast complete with eggs ham cheese and aioli. Mmmm. The. I was ready for a power nap. It's cold out anyway and I did see the center of Adelaide. 

Slept for about an hour and a half then we decided to enjoy the afternoon by listening to pandora and watching some cricket while having some lemonade vodkas. Went to the beach for sunset and it was horribly windy. This beach is very shallow so it keeps the great whites away. Just the baby ones can make it that shallow. The rest wait beyond the drop off. (Yup. Did not go swimming)

After sunset we called it pretty early as I had a 630 am flight to catch so we set up my taxi to the airport and called it a night.

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Australia Day 6-- great ocean road

Woke up at 930 with a slight headache. Showered and packed my day pack to get picked up five blocks from phills apartment but first stopped for a chai and a breakfast sandwich to eat along the way.

Met the bus to the office and switches to the appropriate bus there before setting out on the fourteen hour excursion. It took about an hour before we hit the great ocean road. From there we went through three small towns angleseas, Lorne, and Apollo bay. We stopped and took some breathtaking pictures of the shoreline. We even had lunch provided in Lorne at a beach. Met Nur and her sister from London. They are now living in Sydney and just seeing what else Australia has to offer. Super nice people.

We made it to the otway light house after driving through an eucalyptus forest dense with koala.  The views were gorgeous and the lighthouse was erected in 1848 after a few shipwrecks. Grabbed a caramel piece (with chocolate frosting. Oh so good and calorie packed) then made a couple stops to see the koalas and then to the twelve apostles. We had 30 minutes to capture the pics in the daylight before we ventures onward for our 9$ fresh fish and chips and lac ard cove before coming back to the twelve apostles for our sunset viewing.

The fish and chips were quite good (and plentiful) and the lac ard cove was spectacular. In the late 1800s a ship crashed along the shore and two line survivors were swept into the cove complete with 200 foot rock cliffs surrounding the entire thing. The dude was able to climb out and go for help to rescue the lady.   Absolutely breathtaking pictures.

We then hurried off back to the twelve apostles where we as a group decided to go down Gibson stairs and watch the sunset through two of the apostles from the beach. It was a gorgeous sunset. Pinks and yellows and oranges.

We then loaded in the bus back to Melbourne which took three hours. Was dropped off right infringe of phills house. Packed my bags. Took a three hour nap and off to the airport for Adelaide. 

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Australia Day 5-- Melbourne

Woke up at 630 am and packed up the rest of my things, and woke up sean to take me to the airport for my 9am flight. Got there by 7 am and waited in a half hour line to check my bag. Good thing I paid online the morning for my bag as I guess it turns wicked expensive. After I do that I was queued through security. Did not need to take off my shoes. Did not need to take my liquids out, did not need to take my jacket off. It was rather nice. Also, no one besides the baggage check lady looked at my passport. Ran into Natalie and her friends. (The one I sat next to on the flight from lax to Syd. ) they are headed to cairns, ate breakfast with them and said so long. We are on the sam returning flight to lax so we will swap stories. Got my seat and passed out.

Woke up after touchdown texted phill my Couchsurfer letting him know I arrived. Hopped the bus into the city center and waited about thirty minutes for the free tram to get the ten blocks to his house. Had I not had my backpack I would have walked it.


Phill was slightly hungover from the nye party and when I arrived I voted for an hour nap before seeing the city. Woke up at 2 and we departed for the city. It was drizzling. Stopped for breakfast (ham and cheese omelet and a chai ) then decided what better way to kick off the year than doing a pub crawl (self created) throughout Melbourne. It was a great time. We first had to start with a bloody then had microbrews some even from his hometown.


After awhile we picked up a bottle of wine and stopped at a restaurant in Chinatown as had dumplings (potstickers) and phill started informing me of the drop bears and other deadly creatures there are here. Apparently I should have packed some denim jeans because the snakes fangs cannot penetrate them. Maybe my gentleman host in Alice springs will loan me a pair. Haha. Drop bears are marsupials similar to koala bears but bigger and they hang out above walkways waiting for warm bodies to walk underneath them, then they drop out of the tree and go right for the neck. (I think I'm being gullible, but I did not do any research) apparently vegimight a bread spread that locals love and is very salty can be used to ward off drop bears. As is putting toothpaste behind the ears.

After Chinatown we headed back to phills (as he has to work in the am and I got no sleep the night before). Poured a lowball of scotch and put on Topgun and I fell sleep. Great ocean road trip tomorrow!