20 October - Sydney (Australia)

Of the original 23 people who expected to arrive in Sydney on 20 October only 14 stepped off the bus near the Sydney Opera House. A damming indictment of MADVENTURE I would say.

When we arrived at the Opera House Stephanie's parents were there waiting for her then after having photographs taken we said our goodbyes to each other. Some left to go to hostels for a few days while waiting for their flights back to the UK: some to continue their journey in Australia or New Zealand; and others to wait to be picked up by friends as we had arrived a little earlier than expected having travelled 6138 kilometres from Darwin to Sydney. It was surprising that after 28 weeks we arrived in Sydney on the day and more-or-less the time we had een told before leaving the UK. 

I was picked up by friends and have been spending few days with them ready to continue my travels to Papua New Guinea before returning to Australia for about a month or so. After that I will go back to Bali and try and visit one of the islands with komodo dragons before returning to Singapore to see my family living there. What will happen afterwards I have no idea as I have made no arrangements to return to the UK as yet. This blog is now ended as the Madventure trip which started in London on 6 April travelling for 28 weeks to Sydney has been completed. I will however add another post to the blog which will be a copy of the comments form that I will send to Madventure when it will be completed. This will take a little while as I will not be taking this laptop to PNG but leaving it in Sydney until I return.

I have enjoyed the trip and learnt quite a lot from it despite the disgusting accommodation that has been provided for us; the sex life of our illustrious leader and her item; despite the attitude of the company called MADVENTURE; and the what I consider the poor value for the money I paid to MADVENTURE. I would never recommend MADVENTURE to anyone and I would never travel with them again.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

The Opera House

The End

    

13 to 20 October - Uluru (Ayres Rock) to Lake Lyell and Katoomba (Australia)

Since leaving Darwin we had travelled 3000 kilometres to Uluru. After seeing the sunrise over Ayres Rock, walking round the rock, going to look at the Olgas, another series of rocks which I did not walk around as it was too hot, we went back to Ayres Rock to see the sunset. The posh tourist groups had people there setting out tables and fine linen so that they could have champagne to drink as the sun went down. I did manage to persuade a young lady to give me a glass of champagne much to the envy of the others on the trip. Age does have it’s privileges! I did think that the sunset was much better than the sunrise.

The 'posh' way

After watching the sunset we went back to the camp at Curtain Springs. The following morning, the 14 October, and after being woken up at sunrise by the galas birds, it was off to Marla via the Stuart Highway and the Kulgera Pub. For days now we had travelled through the red country where all the earth was red. Trees were growing everywhere but in some places were more scrub than anything. Whole areas were of hummock grasses of the trioden and plectranchne type, very nasty grasses which had thorns and spikes which were able to get through the tent, which I think were the cause of the holes in my inflatable mattress (which has now been given away). The aborigines are able to get a resin from some of the scrub which they use to fix the points onto arrows and spears. The trees were mainly desert oak, ironwood, corkwood, white wood, acacia and malga scrub.

A trainer tree

A road train

       

Marla Bush Camp

Leaving camp at a later time this morning, the 15 October, at 0800 hours, we headed for Coober Pedy where we arrived at 1130 hours. The Tourist Information Office there had free internet access on their desk tops but only for 30 minutes. 80% of the people here live underground and the main source of income is opals with there being mines everywhere.

Mining Equipment

A normal view from the town

Opal mining eqipment

A derelict underground hotel

     

The underground Catholic church

The underground Revivalist church

The underground Revivalist church cellars

The underground Revivalist church

A visit to the Old Town Mine and Museum was most interesting. This was an old mine that was changed into a museum and underground house and in the process of digging out connecting passages in an old mine further opals were found. Bizarre in the least!

Scenes from the museum

Showing a leather bucket

The first woman to live in the opal fields

The first woman

Cuddling the bottle

Kitchen

The main bedroom

Toilet

A child's bedroom

The first post master in the post office

Real or not?

Libby feeding rocks into the suction machine

After wandering round Coober Pedy for a number of hours we went off road to find somewhere to put up the tent only to end up being stuck in the dirt then having to unload the trailer and unhitch it from the bus and then push both onto firm ground before we could camp. We had been stuck before in Turkey but this was the first time we actually had to push vehicles to get them out of a hole.

It was dirty red dust

The bus ran away and the trailer had to be pushed to it.

Libby pretending to be a pack horse

Prickly grass was everywhere and that together with the red earth did not make a clean and comfortable camp.

Ready to leave in the morning

On 16 October it was up at 0530 hours to prepare breakfast, hot water for tea and coffee being the most important item, set out muesli, weetabix of the Australian variety, jams and peanut butter with bread, the staple breakfast since leaving Darwin. The evening meal was much better than the slops fed to us by our illustrious leader on the trip to Bali. With her not being there we had a chance to eat a reasonable meal. The intention today was to get to Port Augusta, a distance of 557 kilometres. On the way we stopped off at Glendambo Roadhouse, Lake Hart (an inland salt water lake) and Spuds Roadhouse at Pimba, finally setting up camp at Orroroo.

Lake Hart

Lake Hart

We stopped not far far from the camp to look at a 500 plus year old gum tree (cannot find the photograph I took of the tree) the following morning then stopped at Broken Hill to do some more shopping. All shopping was only for food though some were buying duvets or blankets to keep warm as the night temperatures were dropping. During the day we crossed from Northern Australia into New South Wales and the clocks went forward by 30 minutes. Travelling along the Barrier Highway we then camped at Wilcannia for the night.

On 18 October, with everyone getting a bit high as we all realised that the trip was nearly over and not believing that it could be so, there was singing and music on the bus with everyone being somewhat happy. We flew through Nygan, Dubbo and Melbourne before camping at Ponto Falls near Melbourne. As it was Derrick’s birthday today he had bought two cakes to be shared around t the evening meal, a gesture enjoyed by everyone.

Ponto Falls Camp

On 19 October the countryside definitely changed with more grass, cows, sheep and farms to be seen. We stopped near Orange to visit a winery for a wine tasting but I did not like the wine so bought none. From there we did a lap of the Bathurst Motor Racing Course, doing a skidding start from the No.1 spot, not the normal vehicle there as I’m sure that a bus and trailer driving round the course would have looked quite odd to the people working around the track.

On the No.1 grid position ready to start

We were now getting very close to Sydney so we stopped early in the afternoon at Lake Lyall so that people could sort out their bags for the following days arrival in Sydney and clean out the bus and trailer. We had been told that the internet, laundry facilities and showers were available at the camp site but the internet and laundry facilities were a figment of the imagination and the showers cost 20 cents for one minute, a real rip off as some of the time was used to warm up the water and then it shut down before anyone could get showered properly. Why they were using gas heaters for hot water I do not know when there is so much sun available for solar heating. That could be a general comment for the whole trip from Darwin to Sydney as few solar panels were seen anywhere. There were more to be seen in the UK as far as I am concerned!

Our last camp at lake Lyall

On the morning of 20 October we were only 150 kilometres from Sydney and with all the bags packed, everything as clean as it could be considering the red dust we had been travelling in since Darwin, we had plenty of time to get to Sydney for 1400 hours when various members of the group were to be met by family and friends. So it was a short stop at Echo Point, Katoomba, for a walk round the mountains and for coffee and shopping for others. At 1030 hours we left Katoomba for the final part of the trip to Sydney.

Views from Echo Point

 

5 to 13 October – Darwin to Uluru/Ayers Rock (Australia)

Fuel costs : Petrol $1.577 (£1.00 per litre) Diesel $1.719 (£1.15 per litre) at an exchange rate of £1 = A$1.55. The fuel costs vary depending on the the remoteness of the country as A$1.87 for petrol and A$1.96 was seen in Renner Springs, North Australia, then A$1.54 and A$1.52 for petrol and diesel respectively was seen near Sydney.

Darwin was basically a stop for shopping, unwinding and realising that I had seen the last of our illustrious leader and her item. What a weight off my mind that was! It felt that the dark clouds of ignorance and uselessness had gone for ever with those two never to be seen again.

I was picked up at the airport by Adam, the driver and his friend, Helen, even though I had sent an email to him saying that I did not expect to be picked up at 2230 hours being the only one on the flight and our illustrious leader telling me that under no circumstances would I be picked up. From the airport I went to the Value Inn, dropped my bags and decided to have a walk round Darwin even though it was midnight. At that time on a Friday night Darwin was hopping so I sat in a pub watching people going past and drinking red wine. A lady (with her partner I later found out) on another table kept on looking at me and smiling but I did not recognise her. Later another man joined them so partner and he were talking and ignoring the lady. After a while she walked over to me, introduced herself and sat down. She was a stranger! We talked for a while until the partner came over and bought me a drink, cider this time. After a while he started to argue with her asking why she was sitting with me when they had come to the pub together. A domestic argument continued but I did not get the black eye I expected, excused myself and went to the hotel and bed.

The night before we were due to leave Darwin I went out to the camp site to stay and to check that I could put up my new tent as the other tent had been sent back to the UK from Nepal to reduce weight and because it was thought that the Australian authorities would not allow a used tent into Australia.

The Darwin camp site

Typical scenery from Darwin to Ayers Rock

A road train

A road train

A typical view of the road, long straights, seemingly flat but with flood level indicators showing a depth of water up to 1.4 metres

What I call a typical scene with the wind pump

           

































On 8 October we left Darwin for the last part off the trip to Sydney. There was to be a lot of sitting in the bus for this part of the journey as Madventure, because of their incompetence and uncaring attitude, had not told us early enough of when to book the flight from Bali to Darwin so that people could not arrive at Darwin on the expected date making us two days late leaving Darwin and still expected to arrive in Sydney on the original date. They are unbelievable and really need to understand that people expect to receive what they have paid for not being fobbed of with excuses, especially when it is the fault of Madventure themselves.

Leaving Darwin on the Arnhem Highway we headed for Kakadu National Park on a 20 seat bus with the twelve of us on board of the twenty four that left London six months before. Although it was very hot, over 34C, we kept the windows open and enjoyed the fresh hot air. Before camping that night (8 October) we stopped at the Ubirr Art Site to see aboriginal cave paintings, which were quire remarkable for paintings that were 2000 years old.

A fish

Man and crocodile

A bird

The cave painting area

A view from the top of the hill

A view from the top of the hill

                

The camp site notice

A termite hill

Scenery seen every day

9 October at Barunei and the Nitmiluk Aboriginal Centre in the Kakadu National Park. Camping that night was like having a free sauna as everyone baked in their tents.

A boab tree

The Alligator River

Add caption

A view from the mountain top

          

 Matapanka Homestead Pool

   
10 October at Matapanka Homestead with the smelly flying foxes and the spa pool, which was free to use and a welcome change from not being able to have showers. A stop was made at Daly Waters Pub for food and to use the toilet. The pub was quite exceptional as the photographs show. Camping at Renner Springs that night was another experience with huge winds that blew the tents horizontal but not completely into the bush.

Flying Foxes

The spa pool

 The Daly Waters Pub

The thong (flip-flop) tree

Bar decorations

Enjoying a cool cider

I just liked the gates!

The following day, the 11 October, we travelled to Barrow Staging Area, a Second World War area in the bush where trucks transporting war material to the north stopped at night for the drivers to rest. Blogs were now impossible as this laptop battery died and with us camping in the bush here was no way the laptop could be recharged. Even when we stopped in Tennant Creek there were no charging points.

Tennant Creek street paintings

MacDonald's have free wifi in their premises but it was terribly slow even if I could manage to log on, which was the norm. Internet cafes were a foreign word I think as they were few and far between across the Northern Territory. Even where they did exist he usual cost to use the internet was A$16 per hour (£10). We stopped at Wauchope early afternoon for some shopping and then at the Devils Marbles to see the ‘marbles’.

During the night we had a frost and everyone was so cold because it was not expected and they had not dressed for sleeping in the cold. For some reason I was warm enough perhaps because I went into the sleeping bag wearing all my clothes.

Barrow Staging Area Bush Camp

Sunrise with Laura (I think)

The next day, the 12 October, we stopped of at Barrow Creek Telegraph Station, the position of the Tropic of Capricorn, then Alice Springs for shopping only. The Telegraph Station is now kept as a museum of the way the telegraph was used during the early 20th century. That evening saw us camping at Curtain Springs Cattle Station ready to get up at 0330 hours to go to Ayers Rock (Uluru-Kjuta National Park) for sunrise.

   Barrow Creek Telegraph Station

The blacksmiths shop with the clay lined forge

The Tropic of Capricorn site 

         

Town sign

Paintings on the supermarket walls

 Sunrise at Ayers Rock on 13 October and views while walking the 11 kilometres round the rock which I did in 1 hour and 40 minutes follow. The official guide indicates that the walk should take three and a half hours and should be completed by 1100 hours due to the hot weather with plenty of water being available during the walk. The area to climb the rock was closed until we were ready to leave, not that I would have climbed the rock, as it looked too hard and too dangerous. Apparently 35 people have been killed climbing the rock and the Aborigines request that the rock not be climbed as it is a sacred site to them.

A rest area