Day 28 – From Alice Springs to Sydney

We woke up in the morning and after breakfast the majority of us went to the airport. I was going first to Melbourne and then to Sydney because doing so the ticket came out 100AU$ cheaper. I said goodbye to everyone and jumped into the plane. I arrived in Sydney around 7pm. The night was warm and I could tell that spring finally arrived. I had a quick meal at Wagamama and then I went back home. A little chat with Meg and straight to bed.

Day 27 – King’s Canyon and Alice Spring

Another day hiking in one of the most impressive scenery of Australia: King’s Canyon. We all climbed a fairly steep rock to gradually find ourselves on the top of a huge irregular Canyon. The rocks are amongst the oldest of the planet, with their formation dated back to millions of years. The nature is powerful here, and despite the absence of strong vegetation, the small creeks and rivers are surrounded by a lively ecosystem of plants and animals.

The tour lasted approx three and half hours; immediately after lunch we finally drove to our last destination: Alice Springs.

The funniest moment of the day if not of the entire week, was the Melon Bowling. We stopped on the way to collect some wild melons of approximately small pineapple size. With the bus going full speed, you are supposed to launch them outside the window to hit the street signals-triangles on the side of the street! It was so funny. I managed to score 4 times, with 2 of them practically with my full body outside the bus!

Once in Alice, we all checked in at the same hostel and we went for dinner. We then stopped in a bar where a local band was playing folk music with violin, bass and guitar. It was fabulous music and I decided to join the singers in a very improbable local dance. I felt a real cowboy without a horse...

 I would like to spend few words for the aboriginals. I am far from being an expert in the matter but I couldn’t stop thinking about their condition.  As far as I have seen they practically seem to have lost ‘their past’ and at the same time not belonging to ‘this present’. It often feels like they are in ‘no men’s land’ in their own native land. Poor life conditions together with some congenital deficiencies for modern food, make look many of them (obviously not all) the ghosts of their own souls. I could actually notice many parallelisms with the so called ‘red skin’ in US when I lived there and visited their towns in the mid-west. I was told that, despite many efforts from the Australian governments, the situation remains, in many circumstances, extremely difficult. I really wish this problem could one day be somehow resolved for the good of everybody.

Day 26 – Valley of the Wind

Another early morning (surprise surprise!)... Up at 5.30am to watch sunrise and then driving to the Valley of the Wind. Again, another great place, similar somehow to Ayers Rock but with a different path to visit it, going into four different valleys ending with spectacular images of rock and trees, crossing small creeks with your voice echoing hundreds and hundreds of metres away. It was approximately a three hours hiking, which considering the one I had the day before, resulted in being a tough test for my legs.

We drove back to camp for a quick shower and we packed to go to another campsite which would have been more convenient for our scheduled visit to King’s Canyon the following day.

We arrived around 4.30pm and the afternoon was free at leisure. Australia has the largest number of camels in the world despite what many might think (I obviously thought it was Saudi Arabia). The campsite was equipped with a dozen of camels and also a chopper for those who wished to go for long excursions.

The night was full of stars, and with a clear sky and no moon, I honestly do not remember to have seen so many stars in my life... probably only in the Kruger Park in South Africa six years ago.

That’s how I fell asleep...Counting the stars, like in a very cheesy B- movie. I like it though.

Day 25 – Ayers Rock and Sunset

We arrived at Ayers Rock in the morning. The rock was open and so it was possible to climb it. I was slightly reticent to climb the rock since it is a sacred place for the aboriginals. But after few chats around with locals including aboriginals I was told by one of them that the disgrace is when somebody dies climbing not the climb itself. I understand why people die climbing the rock: the climb is not impossible and you definitely do not need to be an expert climber to get to the top.

But you definitely need to be fit and agile. I saw people of approximately the age of my grandmother almost fainting under the sun while attempting to overcome a very difficult passage. To cut the story short I managed after approx 50 minutes to reach the top of the rock. Its height is actually 886 metres above the sea level. Not too bad. The sun was shining and the view from the top was great. You can actually see the desert in all its splendour, and many other mountains in the far end of it. After relaxing and few pictures, I started going back (sometimes even harder than climbing). After a couple of hours and with pain in my legs and feet, I was back to the van and then back to the camp. Quick shower before admiring the sunset. Honestly the sunset was ok, nothing special because spoiled by at least three hundred of tourists hungry of pictures.

The night was spent back at the campsite with lots of wine and good cold beer.

Day 24 – Driving to Ayers Rock

Around 5am as soon as the sun appeared we all woke up.

The day was spent mostly on bus crossing the desert reaching Ayers Rock (also known as Uluru).

We arrived at the camp base which obviously compared to where we were the night before, was a proper 5 stars hotel. As always we slept outside in our sleeping bags but the camp had great bathrooms, showers and a well equipped kitchen. Soon after leaving our bags we headed to the Uluru Museum, were the story of this famous rock, with the aboriginals’ legends and geological information were displayed in a very modern and nice looking museum. We watched the sunset and we went back to the camp. The night was pleasant, chatting and drinking wine in front of the fire.

Once again I felt very happy and calm.

The days since my departure are flying away quickly but I am trying to seize every single moment of this trip, absorbing and observing every single moment of the life around me.

Day 23 – Coober Pedy & The Outback

As per almost every day now, I was an early bird waking up around 6am; a quick shower in a very disgusting communal bathroom and we all gathered for breakfast. The food during the entire six days has been great. Our tour leader managed to always provide good, healthy food which combined with lots of physical movement made the entire journey very pleasant and ‘light’. We went visiting the museum of the town, obviously underground, which explains the origin of the town, the story of the first pioneers, the tools used, some model of underground houses, the way the opal is search and found, and ultimately the way it is used for jewellery with a very interesting display in the adjacent shop of some earrings, bracelets, rings etc.

What have I understood after this interesting 3 hours-tour? That I will definitely never be a miner!

After the museum, we all went to visit a sort of hospital for injured kangaroos. Despite the fact that it might look like something specifically built to bring tourists in (and that the population of kangaroos in Australia is not in danger), the goal of this little organization is really respectful: injured kangaroos (mostly by cars) and/or small orphans who lost their mother, are here looked after and left free again in the outback once (and If) they are ready to look after themselves.

After lunch we left the city with a brief stop at the house of ’Crocodile Henry’. This guy, who died a couple of years ago on his eightyish, was a real character. Originally coming from a noble family in East Europe, he moved to Australia where he started hunting crocodiles and eventually moved not too far out of Coober Pedy. His ‘house’ is inside a massive rock, and it was considered a kind of ‘Mecca’ for all the tourists and backpackers who travelled that way. They all managed to stay there overnight for free as long as they were willing to leave behind one of their item. Anything... (however women were kindly asked to leave either panties or underwear with their signature on it!). The place looked like a post-atomic environment with all these curious objects all over and recycled materials used for many different purposes. This guy apparently has inspired the director of the famous movie ‘Mr Crocodile Dundee’. It was really an incredible place worthy the little de-tour from the beaten track!

We left the place and we continued driving north. Around 6.30pm we pulled over and we drove approx. 100 meters off road. We practically were in the middle of nowhere. No houses, no buildings and only one car every hour or so that could be heard very far away.  We camped there. We lighted a fire and we cooked some delicious gnocchi. Eating gnocchi in front of a fire in the Australian desert is exactly what I call: RANDOM!

The night was amazing and the bright full moon in the sky was illuminating the surroundings with its cold grey rays. It was terribly cold, compared to the rest of the day where the temperature hit 35 degrees. We all stayed close to the fire, singing some songs, telling some funny stories until we gradually embraced the night. I didn’t sleep very much. I was so overwhelmed by the silence and the atmosphere that my sleep was often interrupted by my own thoughts. It was a night where there were no toilets, no TV, no artificial light, no showers or other kind of usual stuff. It was just sleeping in the desert with a sleeping bag in front of a fire. F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C!!!

Day 22 – From Adelaide to Coober Pedy

The day started very early with the little bus being very punctual at 6am in front of the hostel.

The bus was already half full and I sat at the very end of it so that I could also see who my other fellows travellers were in this little adventure. The group was composed by 7 British, 4 Chinese, one couple of Korean and Japanese, 2 Germans, 2 Americans, 1 Finnish, 1 French and I. A very heterogeneous group of people. The journey begun and we left Adelaide heading into the outback. The scenario changed quite immediately: as soon as we left the city, the road entered into a proper rock-desert environment. Massive trucks were driving very fast and few bars were scattered around the road every now and then. We stopped for lunch in a bar/gas station which looked like one of those Saloons you can see in the spaghetti-western movies; we continued driving until we hit the city of Coober Pedy at dusk. Six hours driving and the desert was becoming more and more vast, the human settlements more rare, and the nature relatively wilder.

The city of Coober Pedy seemed more like a ghost town at night. Nothing much to do really if not finding food for dinner (we had pizza which was surprisingly excellent) and a nice chat in which all of us started to know each other. The most interesting element of the day was the place where we slept. Since during the day the temperature is too hot, and at night it is too cold, the people of Coober Pedy sleep and live under ground. Their houses, shops and offices and everything else is mostly built underground. The town lives thanks to the miners who search the opal. Opal is the blood of the city and the reason why miners and many luck-seekers moved to Coober Pedy. The population is really limited to those of the local miners and their relatives and some aboriginals.

The hostel was, as per almost everything, underground. Two main corridors/rooms with eleven bunk beds each. No walls but simple and pure rock all around us. If you suffer of claustrophobia, that one is really not the place you dream to sleep in. We decided to sleep all in the same room; I thought it was good fun though, considering that the temperature was perfect: dry and warm. I put my earplugs in, and before the light was switched off, making the room totally black, I thought that it was by far one of the weirdest places I have ever slept in!