It has been such an amazing trip so far in Australia and we have only been travelling around for about 4 days. We started in Sydney and had panic attacks regarding the prices of pretty much everything and started the quest for free shit almost immediately. Then, we decided that with the cost of hostels, travelling around via buses and eating out everyday over the holiday season that it would be more cost effective to rent a van and travel this gorgeous country via camper van...and what a fabulous idea that was! We left Sydney on the 26th and made out way to Dunno for the night (nothing much to see there). The first night in the van was...interesting and a bit scary, but after a few nights it really is quite comfortable and safe! We drove all the way to Broken Hill for my birthday and this is a very quirky place...I mistakenly called it a small town, but since there are about 20,000 residents I was quickly corrected. It feels like a throw back to the 1950s in some places and the 1800s in others. It is an old mining town and there are many mines (no longer in use) to visit and art galleries and museums and nature preserves and sculpture gardens and on and on. Many artist have flocked to the area and it shows in the sheer number of art galleries and the Sculpture Symposium on a hilltop over looking the gorgeous vast Australian outback. There are 12 sculptures on the top and 12 different artists from all around the world sculpted them out of rocks...amazing to see and even more amazing to climb up this 'hill' to the top...a 20 minute uphill climb...yes, I was winded. Driving to Broken Hill provided some of the most beautiful and colourful scenery we have seen...it also helps that it is un-seasonably freezing and rainy. Just to give you an idea, there has been a drought for the past 12 years and now many of the roads are flooded...of course it would be flooding and freezing in Australia after 12 years of droughts, as Alex and I are travelling around! We saw a number of kangaroos on the road as well, but they were all squished into the ground as roadkill so we are still on the look out for some living ones! I want to see a baby joey and chase it and catch it and pet it and love it, but Alex told me that they are actually very brutal and scratch and kick with their back legs and would kill me, so I have changed my mind. We spent my birthday evening in Broken Hill cooking ramen noodles on the hob in the back of the van and then went to Hungry Jacks for chocolate dipped cones for $1...the plain ones are $.50, but we splurged, as it was my 33rd birthday after all. Then, we went to see Saw 7 in 3D...not such a great idea, as we then had to sleep in a van parked outside down a dark residential street. Yikes. The next day we hiked a 2 1/2 hour flora/fauna trail and it was gorgeous...they did such a great job setting it up, as you walk through with a pamphlet and numbered spots to find along the way describing Aboriginal life and artwork that is displayed along the path such as story poles, which are quite reminiscent of Native American totem poles. In fact, much of the history of the aboriginal people, as well as the artwork is surprisingly similar to the Native Americans. We attempted to visit the Miners Memorial Museum twice, but it was closed the first time and the rain made it too slippery to explore during our second attempt. Instead, Alex found this awesome cemetery walk that takes you through a cemetery that has been around since the early 1800s to various graves that tell a story of the town and some historical accounts of life in the 1800s in Broken Hill, Australia. Some of the grave stones had 'accidentally died' etched into the stone due to accidents occurring in the mines. There were many deaths due to typhoid and other diseases, as well as many mining accidents. Some grave stones showed families that lost all of their children within months of each other...very sad. The cemetery is quite unique in that it is separated into sections based on religion...there is a Catholic section, Methodist section, a Jewish section and even a Muslim section. All the Muslim graves are pointing towards Mecca and it is interesting to see them all lined up in the same direction according to the Muslim burial customs...even from back in the 1800s. We ended our day having spiders (a local ice cream infused soda drink) and milkshakes at the Bell's Milk Bar, a 1950s old timey milkery that was just too quaint for words. I had a fruit tingle spider, which tasted like a strawberry cream-sickle and Alex had a banana surprise thick milkshake and was that bad boy thick...she got the worst headache ever trying to suck it up through the straw...the surprise was the chocolate sauce drizzled on top and throughout the shake...yummy! Overall, Broken Hill was a dreamy little town and must stop location on anyone's road trip itinerary. The people were lovely and helpful and the town was quirky and interesting. Off we drove to make it about 414km to Port Augusta on our way to Ayer's Rock, but we had to stop in a teeny tiny place called Yunta on the way to get some petrol, clean the windshield of the million butterfly corpses we accumulated on the journey, which we call the Butterfly Homicide Highway and attempt to cook some food in the windiest and coldest conditions ever! We stopped on the side of the road near some random dice made out of rocks that were stacked in a cheerleading pyramid sort of position in the middle of the outback off the side of the highway and wedged our van against a wall to try and prevent the wind from blowing out the flame to no avail so we moved on to Yunta and stopped at the BP station on the side of the road, as there was a roof type shelter apparatus that might aid us in keeping the wind at bay, again this was not to be so we created a wall around the flame with our bodies and some towels to keep the wind out. The woman in the BP station, Brenda, saw what we were doing and thought we were getting up to all sorts until the wind blew our apparatus up and away revealing the pathetic hob with the measly flame and out supper getting colder by the moment. She and the two Indian men who just purchased the BP station and were being trained on the cash machine and all the inner workings of this shop invited us into the back kitchen to use their stove so we could cook our dinner in style. Brenda spent the next hour or so helping me prepare some noodles with canned tuna and sweet corn and even gave us some cheese and butter to spice up our interesting dinner free of charge...oh and some coffee and a hot chocolate for Al, as she does not drink coffee or tea...what a strange English person she is! We sat in the dining area and watched TV while eating our delicious tuna bake concoction and just before we left, Brenda gave us her card just in case we had any trouble during our journey. I swear we have never met such a lovely lady! They are featured in the picture displayed in this blog and we felt deserved to be recognized, as they truly came to our rescue in our time of need. We made it to Port Augusta and hunkered down for a night of windy sleep and have spent the morning on their Heritage Walk around this town...honestly, it is a bit boring and lame, but we are getting some exercise before a mammoth 535km drive to Coober Pedy this afternoon...this is the town where everyone lives underground and was featured in the Mad Max movies. We are very excited to see what this town is all about and tour some of the underground homes and shops. Luckily, the weather is unusually freezing so sleeping in the van has been quite comfortable...unfortunately, this means that outdoor showers that would already be unbearably cold are now unbearably freezing so due to this fact, bathing has been put to the bottom of the priority list and we are going on 4 days strong without showers...it is important to note that we are true hardcore travellers and that is just what happens during life on the road.
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Oh the wonderful people you meet in Australia
It has been such an amazing trip so far in Australia and we have only been travelling around for about 4 days. We started in Sydney and had panic attacks regarding the prices of pretty much everything and started the quest for free shit almost immediately. Then, we decided that with the cost of hostels, travelling around via buses and eating out everyday over the holiday season that it would be more cost effective to rent a van and travel this gorgeous country via camper van...and what a fabulous idea that was! We left Sydney on the 26th and made out way to Dunno for the night (nothing much to see there). The first night in the van was...interesting and a bit scary, but after a few nights it really is quite comfortable and safe! We drove all the way to Broken Hill for my birthday and this is a very quirky place...I mistakenly called it a small town, but since there are about 20,000 residents I was quickly corrected. It feels like a throw back to the 1950s in some places and the 1800s in others. It is an old mining town and there are many mines (no longer in use) to visit and art galleries and museums and nature preserves and sculpture gardens and on and on. Many artist have flocked to the area and it shows in the sheer number of art galleries and the Sculpture Symposium on a hilltop over looking the gorgeous vast Australian outback. There are 12 sculptures on the top and 12 different artists from all around the world sculpted them out of rocks...amazing to see and even more amazing to climb up this 'hill' to the top...a 20 minute uphill climb...yes, I was winded. Driving to Broken Hill provided some of the most beautiful and colourful scenery we have seen...it also helps that it is un-seasonably freezing and rainy. Just to give you an idea, there has been a drought for the past 12 years and now many of the roads are flooded...of course it would be flooding and freezing in Australia after 12 years of droughts, as Alex and I are travelling around! We saw a number of kangaroos on the road as well, but they were all squished into the ground as roadkill so we are still on the look out for some living ones! I want to see a baby joey and chase it and catch it and pet it and love it, but Alex told me that they are actually very brutal and scratch and kick with their back legs and would kill me, so I have changed my mind. We spent my birthday evening in Broken Hill cooking ramen noodles on the hob in the back of the van and then went to Hungry Jacks for chocolate dipped cones for $1...the plain ones are $.50, but we splurged, as it was my 33rd birthday after all. Then, we went to see Saw 7 in 3D...not such a great idea, as we then had to sleep in a van parked outside down a dark residential street. Yikes. The next day we hiked a 2 1/2 hour flora/fauna trail and it was gorgeous...they did such a great job setting it up, as you walk through with a pamphlet and numbered spots to find along the way describing Aboriginal life and artwork that is displayed along the path such as story poles, which are quite reminiscent of Native American totem poles. In fact, much of the history of the aboriginal people, as well as the artwork is surprisingly similar to the Native Americans. We attempted to visit the Miners Memorial Museum twice, but it was closed the first time and the rain made it too slippery to explore during our second attempt. Instead, Alex found this awesome cemetery walk that takes you through a cemetery that has been around since the early 1800s to various graves that tell a story of the town and some historical accounts of life in the 1800s in Broken Hill, Australia. Some of the grave stones had 'accidentally died' etched into the stone due to accidents occurring in the mines. There were many deaths due to typhoid and other diseases, as well as many mining accidents. Some grave stones showed families that lost all of their children within months of each other...very sad. The cemetery is quite unique in that it is separated into sections based on religion...there is a Catholic section, Methodist section, a Jewish section and even a Muslim section. All the Muslim graves are pointing towards Mecca and it is interesting to see them all lined up in the same direction according to the Muslim burial customs...even from back in the 1800s. We ended our day having spiders (a local ice cream infused soda drink) and milkshakes at the Bell's Milk Bar, a 1950s old timey milkery that was just too quaint for words. I had a fruit tingle spider, which tasted like a strawberry cream-sickle and Alex had a banana surprise thick milkshake and was that bad boy thick...she got the worst headache ever trying to suck it up through the straw...the surprise was the chocolate sauce drizzled on top and throughout the shake...yummy! Overall, Broken Hill was a dreamy little town and must stop location on anyone's road trip itinerary. The people were lovely and helpful and the town was quirky and interesting. Off we drove to make it about 414km to Port Augusta on our way to Ayer's Rock, but we had to stop in a teeny tiny place called Yunta on the way to get some petrol, clean the windshield of the million butterfly corpses we accumulated on the journey, which we call the Butterfly Homicide Highway and attempt to cook some food in the windiest and coldest conditions ever! We stopped on the side of the road near some random dice made out of rocks that were stacked in a cheerleading pyramid sort of position in the middle of the outback off the side of the highway and wedged our van against a wall to try and prevent the wind from blowing out the flame to no avail so we moved on to Yunta and stopped at the BP station on the side of the road, as there was a roof type shelter apparatus that might aid us in keeping the wind at bay, again this was not to be so we created a wall around the flame with our bodies and some towels to keep the wind out. The woman in the BP station, Brenda, saw what we were doing and thought we were getting up to all sorts until the wind blew our apparatus up and away revealing the pathetic hob with the measly flame and out supper getting colder by the moment. She and the two Indian men who just purchased the BP station and were being trained on the cash machine and all the inner workings of this shop invited us into the back kitchen to use their stove so we could cook our dinner in style. Brenda spent the next hour or so helping me prepare some noodles with canned tuna and sweet corn and even gave us some cheese and butter to spice up our interesting dinner free of charge...oh and some coffee and a hot chocolate for Al, as she does not drink coffee or tea...what a strange English person she is! We sat in the dining area and watched TV while eating our delicious tuna bake concoction and just before we left, Brenda gave us her card just in case we had any trouble during our journey. I swear we have never met such a lovely lady! They are featured in the picture displayed in this blog and we felt deserved to be recognized, as they truly came to our rescue in our time of need. We made it to Port Augusta and hunkered down for a night of windy sleep and have spent the morning on their Heritage Walk around this town...honestly, it is a bit boring and lame, but we are getting some exercise before a mammoth 535km drive to Coober Pedy this afternoon...this is the town where everyone lives underground and was featured in the Mad Max movies. We are very excited to see what this town is all about and tour some of the underground homes and shops. Luckily, the weather is unusually freezing so sleeping in the van has been quite comfortable...unfortunately, this means that outdoor showers that would already be unbearably cold are now unbearably freezing so due to this fact, bathing has been put to the bottom of the priority list and we are going on 4 days strong without showers...it is important to note that we are true hardcore travellers and that is just what happens during life on the road.
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Happy birthday, my friend. Glad you made it to Australia...I know it has been a long standing dream of yours to make it to the land where the milk and honey flows. Have fun traveling around! That Jucy is just too cute for words.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you should have sent word ahead that you & Alex were coming so the Australians could have prepared for the unseasonably freezing rain! Despite the weather, it sounds lovely....and what a nice way to spend your birthday, Melissa!! Lots of hugs, Mom xxx
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