Australia
A morning with an Aboriginal Community
We spent the morning with a young Aboriginal man. He took us up into the bush and showed us all the different kinds of “bush tucker” that the Aboriginal people like to eat along with some rock art. For morning tea, he prepared us a kangaroo tail, first singeing and scraping off the fur, then [...]
Kings Canyon
Today was the most physically challenging. Up early again to hike the rim of Kings Canyon. This involved a 20 minute ascent straight up what is affectionately known as “Heart Attack Hill”. With a bit of sheer determination and some stubbornness, I made it to the top. Following this was 8km around the rim of [...]
Kata Tjuta – The Olgas
Up at 4.30am ( no rest for the wicked). On the road to watch the sun come up. Our vantage point was closer to Kata Tjuta than Uluru, but a stunning view of both. In the cool of the morning we tramped the “Valley of the Winds Walk”. On the way we stopped for a [...]
Outback Safari in the Northern Territory – Uluru
I was picked up from my backpackers in Alice Springs at 6am and we drove 450km through the Northern Territory Desert to Uluru (Ayers Rock), stopping off at a Camel Farm and a Roadhouse at Mt Ebenezer and Curtin Springs (the HQ for a massive cattle station). I think the thing that struck me the [...]
School of the Air – The Largest Classroom in the World
The Northern Territory of Australia is immense. The farm stations are generally divided into 1 million acre blocks. Incredibly, the biggest farm in Australia is the same size as the country of Belgium! The children living in these remote areas are logistically not able to attend school everyday, so they enrol at the Alice Springs [...]
Flying Doctors
Here I am at Alice Springs, right in the centre of Australia. I loved the TV programme “Flying Doctors” when I was growing up and so I knew I definitely wanted to check out the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Visitor Centre. Travelling so many thousands of kilometres in the past weeks has made me realise how vast [...]
Kuranda
I rushed North to steer well clear of Cyclone Ului (which aimed directly at Airlie Beach where I just was). After doing a drive by of Mission Beach, I arrived in Cairns. I’m really starting to feel the heat, now. The weather has improved somewhat and I am really glad to see some sun. Just out of Cairns, I caught [...]
Townsville and Magnetic Island
Townsville is a bit of a mess at the moment due to them completely renovating the main shopping mall. I spent a day exploring the town, visiting the aquarium, going to the IMAX and I finished off by heading up to Castle Hill lookout. The next day I caught the ferry to Magnetic Island (affectionately [...]
Sailing away in the Whitsundays
My 3 day sailing adventure on “Silent Night” an ex-racing yacht was an awesome adventure. There were 12 of us on board plus 2 crew. Due to the approaching Cyclone Ului, the wind conditions were very borderline, which made the adventure even more exciting. Sailing is exhilarating. I have never been on a yacht before and the [...]
Sugar Country and the Capricorn Caves
The drive between Town of 1770 and Airlie Beach consists of long straight roads, lots of signs warning about driver fatigue, rest areas, the odd sign warning for Koalas or Roos, acres and acres and acres of sugar cane and not much else. I did make a couple of significant discoveries on my way through. [...]
