Patagonia!!!!! – Part 2

Days on the trip: 262

Chilean Patagonia had treated us very well, but it was now time to explore the Argentinean side. So we got on a bus, hopped across the border (another beautiful crossing), and arrived in El Calafate, famous for one of its glaciers: Perito Moreno. It’s part of the Los Glaciares National Park, Argentinia’s largest national park which has about 30% of its area is covered in ice. Perito Moreno is only one of 47 glaciers in the park but it is very popular because of its size and accessibility – we got a bus out there and explored the glacier along the board walks. The weather wasn’t the best but it was mostly not raining, which was helpful. Occasionally a bit of sun even came through which really lit up the blue ice.

The glacier was great. It was huge and we could get pretty close to it on the board walks, both on ground level and slightly elevated. Most impressive though was the cracking, living sounds that the glacier made. Right at the end, we even saw a massive piece fall into the lake. Not to worry though, according to the information boards, it’s one of only three glaciers in the park that is advancing.

 

On our second day in El Calafate we booked a 4×4 Land Rover Safari in the Patagonian steppe. Martin was very excited to be back in a Land Rover again – shame though it wasn’t Baloo, and shame we couldn’t drive it either. Whilst billed as a safari, fauna was light on the ground, but we did see lots of guanacos and horses. We also learnt more about the geology of Patagonia and the Andes, including that the Andes act as a rain wall so that barely any rain falls on the Argentinean side and lots of rain in Chile. The rain in Chile is especially substantial because at this latitude there is no other land mass, and as a result Chile, unexpectedly, has a bit of rainforest in Patagonia.

On our last day in El Calafate we took a walk down to Lago Argentina, Argentina’s largest fresh water lake, and then got on a bus to El Chalten which is the trekking capital of Argentinean Patagonia and a rival to Torres del Paine.

The drive along Route 40, and then into El Chalten was beautiful – we could see the moody snow-capped mountains and the tiny village of El Chalten, in the valley, getting closer. As the sun started to set, the sky turned orange and made it even more special. It seems to be common that even if you don’t want to hike, you still go to El Chalten just to admire the scenery from road and the town.

The village itself is quite small, supermarkets are very basic, and we were told to get any money that we want to spend there out of the cash machines in El Calafate. Nowhere in El Chalten seems to accept cards, and the one ATM rarely works, especially for foreigners.  Being sufficiently well warned however, we were fine.

 

On the first day, we decided to hike to Laguna Torre – the weather forecast predicted rain so we didn’t want to have too big a hike. After an initial steep climb, it was then flat for quite a few kilometres – by which we mean actually flat, not Torres del Paine flat which is up and down. The walk itself was nice through some forest and along a stream until we got to the laguna. At the laguna we enjoyed some snacks and a pretty view over cerro Torre, before returning home and having a lovely dinner out in town.

The second day had the best weather forecast. However, it was only supposed to be really sunny in the morning and then gradually cloud over. So we made the decision to get up early and hopefully catch more views with sunshine. This time we did the popular hike to Laguna Los Tres. It’s a little bit longer but is supposed to have stunning view over Fitz Roy. Like the previous day it started with an uphill bit, but soon flattened and we started to get our first views of Mount Fitz Roy at the miradors (lookouts). The view of the mountain was amazing, and as we got closer, we saw the mountain from different angles and with different surrounds, such as forests, lakes, clearings, … We couldn’t get enough and kept taking more and more pictures.

The clouds started to come in, and we knew we had to race as we got to the final kilometre. Almost there … except not quite. This was once more a super steep bit. Not quite like in Torres del Paine but pretty close. After 45min of climbing we reached the top, saw the laguna and the Fitz Roy in the background. Stunning view.

Our final day in El Chalten was technically a full day as we had our bus at 8:30pm in the evening. But without a room and thus no shower we didn’t want to do any excessive hiking. In fact Martin opted for a lazy lunch and doing some laundry. Andi, feeling more active, went on the much shorter and easier walk to Los Condores and Las Aguilas lookouts. It had some more views over the village and the other side of town that we didn’t get to explore and she also saw an armadillo. So overall, quite relaxing, not too exhausting and a nice end of El Chalten.

Now, what’s better El Chalten or Torres del Paine? There are so many different forums online discussing which one is better. And we only did the day hikes in El Chalten, rather than some of the multi-day treks. Overall, we thought Torres del Paine had more varied scenery and we absolutely loved the Grey glacier and the French valley in Torres del Paine. However, the Laguna Los Tres hike beat the main hike to the Torres in Torres del Paine and offered some stunning scenery. Overall though, we guess it depends on the weather. If you have a nice day in one, it will definitely beat a rubbish day in the other one.

 

Patagonia!!!!! – Part 1

Days on the trip: 256

We were extremely excited about visiting Patagonia, especially Andi, and finally it was time to go. She was now quite anxious – what if it didn’t live up to expectations? Anyway, step one was to get up very early to go to the airport for our flight to Ushuaia. The small domestic airport in Buenos Aries was a little bit chaotic, but we had plenty of time, so there was no need to worry.

 

After about three hours we landed in Ushuaia, the southern-most city in the world at 55 degrees south – astonishingly, only the equivalent of Belfast in the north [comparison noted by Wikipedia]. When we landed, there was beautiful sunshine and as soon as we got out of the airport we found some beautiful photo opportunities. Everything looked really pretty.

Our time in Ushuaia would be limited, due to the bus schedules and our need to head further north, so we had made a plan to fit in as much as possible. First we went to the hostel, checked in, chatted to our lovely host (who only spoke Spanish), and then checked out the town. It’s a small town with one main street with shops, restaurants and plenty of tour companies selling staggeringly expensive trips to the Antarctic.

For the afternoon we had booked a tour on the Beagle Channel, where we would hopefully see plenty of birds, sea lions, penguins, lovely scenery, and the lighthouse. The weather didn’t quite play ball, but it was still epic.  During our time here, we would learn that the Patagonian weather is rarely helpful, and changes very quickly.

The next day the plan was to go to the Tierra del Fuego national park. The weather had worsened, and over breakfast we were chatting to a pair of Lithuanians who were definitely not enthusiastic about the park in the miserable weather.  However, they were at the end of their Patagonia trip, while we, on the other hand were still fresh and keen, so we wrapped up and got a bus to the park. With nice sunshine, the walks through forests and past lakes would have been amazing. With clouds and a constant threat of rain, the best we could do was imagine what it would be like with blue sky, but it was still a nice day out.

From here our plan was to go to Punta Arenas, and then head to Puerto Natales. Since the busses only run three times a week, we had to leave Ushuaia earlier than we would have liked. Definitely a shame, but suppose we’ll just have to come back when we go to the Antarctic. 🙂

 

The bus to Punta Arenas took about 12 hours, including a short ferry ride, and a border crossing to Chile. The scenery was pretty and getting into Chile was reasonably smooth – although Chile does some pretty thorough checks to see if people are bringing fruit, seeds, meat, etc. into the country, and we were delayed because some Germans tried to smuggle an apple into the country.

In Punta Arenas we had plenty of time. Way too much time really. It wasn’t as nice as Ushuaia and didn’t have much to offer – although we felt safe having spotted the tsunami evacuation route. The main attraction was a boat ride to Isla Magdalena, an island with another light house and more penguins. Unlike the Beagle tour however, we were allowed to get off the boat and walk amongst the penguins – although we had to stay on a path, so there was no penguin chasing. Also on the boat we saw some dolphins and whales, an unexpected highlight, but pretty difficult to photograph. Other than that we did some admin/bookings and then caught the bus to Puerto Natales.

Puerto Natales also doesn’t have the most fascinating tourist attractions. However, it is the starting point for hiking in the Torres del Paine national park, so we spent the day getting ready for our first ever multi-day hike. This meant hiring some gear (cooking equipment, backpacks for the hike, and walking sticks) and also buying some food (5x breakfasts and lunches, 3x dinners), and snacks, to take into the park.

 

We had five nights in the park and were doing the popular W-trek from west to east. Accommodation gets booked up very quickly, so by the time we booked – 2 months in advance – we only got the last few spots. It turned out that we did very well though, because the majority of the people we met in the park hadn’t got the accommodation they wanted, and some didn’t even get any, which meant they weren’t allowed to stay in the park overnight.

From Puerto Natales we got an early morning bus into Torres del Paine. Andi was super excited but we still had a reasonably long way to go. The bus ride was about 2.5 hours, then we had to pay and register at the entrance to the park, and then continue on the bus for a bit until the catamaran stop in Pudeto. From there we got a 30 minute ferry to refugio Paine Grande. The weather was very cloudy and misty in the morning, and even though it had cleared a little bit on the ferry, the visibility still wasn’t great, but it didn’t dampen our excitement and the ferry ride was still nice with lots of pretty views.

Our first hike was to refugio Grey, which we would have to do with our full backpacks. The views were lovely as we were walking through a dry forest, past a lake, a waterfall and then towards the glacier. Happily, the weather began to clear as we were walking, so by the time we reached the glacier and the refugio four hours later, we had a stunning view of the cold blue icebergs and the glacier. At this point we were also quite tired from carrying our bags, but at least this would be the heaviest they would be during the trip. Every time we ate a peach, piece of chocolate, bonbon or a sandwich, we counted the grams that we don’t have to carry any more.

At the refugio, we stayed in a small but comfy room that we shared with a guy from California. He was doing the full loop trek, and we’d keep bumping into him for the rest of our hike. We hadn’t booked dinner at the place, so instead we went to the camping kitchen and cooked some pasta and tuna on our stove – another 600g out of our bag. And then we slept like a log.

 

The second day we just had to do the same hike back to refugio Paine Grande, where we left the ferry the day before. Since we had a full day to do this and we were now a bit more trained and had less weight on us, we decided to spend the morning going a bit further in the opposite direction – towards the glacier and a suspension bridge. It was recommended by several people who did the full loop, and since we were so close and could leave our bags at the refugio, it was an easy (and reasonably flat) walk we had to do.

Afterwards, we headed to refugio Paine Grande, again enjoying the glacier, the icebergs, the lake, and the dry forest… but this time with even better weather. And once more we had a comfy night at a refugio in a private room. For dinner: pasta bolognese. Yummy, and 600g out of Martin’s bag!

The next day we had a relatively early start to ensure we could cover the distance to camp Frances before dusk.  The first bit of the trek was quite easy and flat and so we made really good progress, but got a little wet after some rain. By the time we reached the italiano campsite, the weather started to clear a little. Not much, but enough for us to try the hike up to the French Valley – without our bags as we left them at camp italiano. The path was steep, went over rocks, past a reasonably big stream and through a forest until we got to a super windy clearing. The wind almost blew us away but luckily the rain had stopped and so we could admire the beautiful view over the French valley with the lakes, mountains, and glaciers around us. Absolutely stunning!!!

The path continues further up, but since we didn’t trust the weather and we still had quite a trek to camp Frances, we headed down.  It actually turned out that our campsite was not too far away, but the luxury of refugios was over – from now on it would be camping for the rest of the trip. But we still had a little bit of luxury – we hired the tent, sleeping bags and mats from the campsite – so at least it was already setup for us and most importantly, we didn’t have to carry the tent. After another yummy dinner of tuna pasta, we listened to a podcast and then tried to sleep on the hard camping mats.

After a passable night, our next trek was to the Torre camping site, which was the only place still available in the eastern part of the park. The weather was beautiful (almost too warm) and the walk was nice – but nothing in comparison to the Grey glacier or the French valley. We stayed in a tent again, but our luxury was a three course meal at the refugio next to our campsite. The meal was nice, although a bit random. We got a random sauce, but nothing to use it with and a random bowl of cold beans for the table to share. Anyway, we weren’t complaining after three nights of pasta.

Our final full day of the park was the trek up to the iconic Torres. Some people go for sunrise, but we didn’t fancy leaving the campsite at 2am, especially not when the weather forecast wasn’t great. So after breakfast we made our way up: first a reasonably steep hill, then a flat area through a forest, and then the final 1km straight up over rocks. 1km may not sound like a lot but it took us 45 minutes, at quite a good pace. Fortunately, we were well aware that this section was going to come, so there was no real shock. We reached the misty Torres just in time for lunch.

Since the weather really wasn’t that great, this final trek was mainly for completeness and achievement points. And whilst we didn’t get to see the Torres in beautiful sunshine with blue sky, we still got to see some of them – actually more than we were expecting from the weather. Also, whilst they are the main icon of the park we actually thought the glacier and the French valley were much prettier.

 

Happy with our completed trek through Torres del Paine, we went back to our campsite and then to the refugio for some celebratory drinks, games, and our final 3 course refugio meal. We also found out how much it would have cost to hire someone to carry our backpacks – $100 for a 2h walk. Maybe we should stay longer and earn some money?

 

The following day was all about leaving the park. We hiked – passing some guanacos – to the entrance of the park from where we would catch a bus back to Puerto Natales. Back in Puerto Natales we dropped off our rental equipment and, contended, chilled in our comfy airbnb.

Hola Buenos Aires

Days on the trip: 243

 

We were both very excited as we left Australia, as it was going to be our first time in South America. In preparation, Andi had been trying to learn some Spanish (Thanks, Adrian) and soon was the moment of truth – would it would be useful / good enough? And how would Martin cope?

 

Our first stop was after a little hop to Auckland, New Zealand. Unfortunately, it was only a very short stay, not even leaving the airport.  But it was long enough to switch on our phones, with our Australian sim card, and learn that it was 52 Aussie dollars per MB. Wow! Fortunately it wasn’t necessary because the airport had wifi and we didn’t have very long to wait anyway.

 

We landed in Buenos Aires after a pleasant 11 hour flight, and thanks to crossing the time/date line, we arrived earlier than we left Melbourne! After 2 months living in the future we were now very much in the past. At the airport, we booked our bus into the centre at one of the kiosks just after collecting our luggage, and then tried to get some cash out from the cash machines. No luck – there was no cash in any of the machines. Ah well, we didn’t need it just yet and we could simply try in town. We also had some US$ and credit cards.

 

After getting into our hostel, we loaded trip adviser to find somewhere for dinner.  We found a cheap place nearby – a burger restaurant, where (conveniently) it said that they accepted cards.  At the restaurant, we ordered, but then found that none of our cards worked. So Martin was dispatched to find a cash machine, based on some dodgy directions he couldn’t really understand from the uncertain restaurant staff. This, inevitably, turned into a bit of a mission.  After quite some time, the first one he found had no money, as usual, but then the second one did.  Few. All the while Andi was waiting in the restaurant and really got into a game of beach soccer on the TV. It seems to require quite a different set of skills to the soccer we are used to, but was still very interesting to watch. It was the qualification for the world cup, but unfortunately Argentina lost.  Martin returned and we had some yummy burgers while Andi introduced him to her latest passion.

 

The next day was supposed to be a nice sight-seeing day. But we were both quite tired and jet-lagged, so by the time we were both up, it was pretty late in the afternoon. Ah well, we had a few more days here, so instead we did some admin. First on the list was to get an Argentinean sim card. Martin had already checked out the deals, decided that we would buy a sim from Claro, and found a Claro shop near the hostel.

 

Unexpectedly, the Claro shop didn’t actually sell sim cards for their service. Instead they sent us to a small independent kiosk a few blocks away, where they did indeed sell sims, but of the wrong size. Andi’s epic spanish was now called into action, and the woman said that the thing to do was to buy it anyway, go back to the Claro shop we’d just been to, and ask them to cut it. So we trotted back to Claro, asked them to cut the cards for us, and they did!  Martin was very impressed with Andi at this point, and after putting some credit on the cards, they worked a treat. This was the first real test for Andi’s Spanish and she was very proud when we were successful at the end of it.

 

Next we felt like we deserved some food, and after that we actually did a little bit of sight-seeing.  The comic strip walk consists of a short road with murals and sculptures of South American cartoon characters. They were pretty cool but we didn’t recognise any of them.

After taking lots of photos on the walk, we went back to the hostel ready for the tango lesson, show and dinner that we had booked in the morning… only to find out that apparently the building had suffered a water leak and they had to cancel the performance. Instead they would give us a ticket for the following day – Valentine’s day. Not too upset at the change of plans, we decided to check out the famous Argentinean steak at a parillia nearby and it was absolutely delicious. High quality steak, cooked perfectly, with a huge portion of chips, and a glass or two of Malbec, all for not too much money.

 

The next day the plan was to go to Boca in the morning, and then do the free walking tour in the afternoon. It was a reasonably busy schedule, but doable… except when you leave the hostel way too late. Anyway, we went to Boca, which is a place with lots of colourful houses, little markets, arty places and exhibitions, and lots of tango. It was really pretty to wander around there but we couldn’t stay too long because we needed to get a cab into the centre for the free walking tour.

Plan A was to get an uber. But turns out we couldn’t get one. So plan B was flagging down a taxi. There were loads around but they were all busy or didn’t stop. Damn. Eventually we realised we wouldn’t make the tour. So we had to sort out our own little tour and ended up going different ways for our sight-seeing. Andi went to Puerto Madero, past Parque Micaela Bastidas, where they were setting up for a formula-E race, then along the walk of fame (where she only recognised Messi). Afterwards she went to Plaza de Mayo, to some Manzana museum and finally to the national congress. Martin focussed on the historic centre around Plaza de Mayo and then Recoleta and the famous cemetery there.

We met back at the hostel, ready for our tango evening (once again). This time there was no unfortunate surprise. We first had our lesson, where we learnt 3 basic steps, and then enjoyed food and a show. It was a great way to spend Valentine’s day.

On our last day in Buenos Aires we split up once more. Martin did some admin, went to the barber and bought a new jumper, ready for colder Patagonia. Andi went to Recoleta, checked out a posher neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, went to the cemetery where she found Evita’s grave and at the end joined a critical thinking free walking tour. It was a great tour where she learnt a lot about the history of Argentina, politics and education. Not knowing much (meaning close to nothing) about Argentina it was really helpful and interesting to get an overview of the developments, struggles and thoughts of the people there.

For our final night in Buenos Aires we once more had steak, and even though we wanted an early night, it ended up getting quite late after all the sight seeing and an extensive dinner… something we would definitely feel the next day when we had to get up at 3.30am for our flight to Ushuaia.  We were so excited though to be going to Patagonia 🙂

 

 

Road trip through the Outback – part 2

Days on the trip: 239

After our trip to the MacDonnell ranges, it was time to return our relocation campervan. Of course we still hadn’t made it to Ayers Rock, but that was all part of the plan. So we picked up a new rental campervan in Alice (not a relocation this time, but a Jurassic Park themed car from Wicked Campers), dropped off the land cruiser, and headed to Ayers Rock, aka Uluru.

The drive there was more outback, over 450km of it, but we were experts at that now. The drive was uneventful, still no kangaroos, but we knew we were close when we saw Mount Connor.  Sometimes people mistake this for Uluru – but we’d read far too many stories to make the same mistake ourselves. Near to Uluru, there is a hotel/camping complex called Uluru Resort, where we had a camping reservation.  On arriving, we checked in, and since we didn’t have aircon anymore, we quickly headed to the pool to cool down.  After this, we headed out to Ayers rock for sunset.

We got there way too early as we still had an hour until sunset once we were all parked up. Nevermind – we took some photos, played games on our phones and carefully watched the weather. Lots of grey clouds were rolling in behind us, and we didn’t know whether we’d get our sunset. But then, as sunset began, the clouds disappeared, and it was magic.

Back at the campsite we BBQ’d some sausages on one of the free grills, and had the most expensive red wine we’ve had in a while – 35 aussie dollars was the cheapest available. And then it was time for bed as we had an early start the next day.

The next day of course we wanted to see Ayers Rock for sunrise, so we got up and left the campsite at 6am to follow the big stream of cars all heading in the same direction. This time we weren’t going to be an hour early – sleep is too valuable. In fact, maybe we should have left a few minutes earlier as sunrise started just as we were pulling in to the viewing platform. However, we still got some really lovely views and felt proud that we made it there so early.

Sunset: tick; sunrise: tick; general photos: tick. But all this time we were actually quite far away from the rock. So we thought we’d go on the Mutitjulu walk. It’s only a short 30min walk but it’s right by the rock and goes to a fresh water pool and some stone paintings. We were not the only ones there, so from some of the tour guides around we could listen in to some explanation about the fresh water reservoir, which was used by Aboriginals for fresh water and was far too valuable to use for any form of swimming or washing. This was also one of the places which recently had lots of waterfalls down Ayers Rock because of all the rain. At the paintings we learned that it was difficult to date them and that there was one patch that was bald. Apparently a few decades ago tourist groups would come and to improve the contrast of their photos, the guide would splash water over the paintings. Unfortunately that meant that with time, the paintings were washed away.

After the little walk, we simply drove around the rock and watched some ant-people climb Uluru. We decided not to climb to respect the Aboriginals’ wish not to climb and because it was pretty hot. (And Andi had already been up there on a previous trip.)

Instead we made our way to the Olgas, which are a similar rock formation (although many of them) a bit further away. We got some lovely views from the viewing platform and then headed closer to do some of the valley of the winds walk. We only did the very first bit since it was far too hot to do the whole walk. The walk was nice, but not as iconic as seeing Uluru up close but at least the valley of the winds did provide some breezes.

It was only about 10am but way too hot to be outside any longer. So it was either going to be a day in the pool at Uluru resort and then another sunset/sunrise, or as we opted to, a drive to Kings Canyon. We would get to see something new and while driving we could have the aircon on.

We arrived at Kings Canyon resort around 2/3pm, found a spot to camp and then went to their pool. It wasn’t as nice as the one at Ayers Rock but it was the only place that was reasonably cool, followed by the bar, which had at least a fan. We enjoyed some drinks, relaxed, and for sunset Andi got a glass of prosecco. The sunset viewing platform was right at the camping sight, so really not very far, but since we didn’t want to be too early, we almost cut it too fine.

We enjoyed a pizza in the restaurant and then had an early night because the plan for the next day was to do the Canyon rim walk. The walk closes at 9am because of the heat and it is recommended to start the walk around 6am. 6am, we didn’t quite manage but 6.30am was close enough. We were warned already that the first part is pretty steep, but that once you’ve managed that it’s reasonably flat. At least the steepest bit would be during the coolest time and once we were at the top we had a great view over the canyon. As we were walking along the rim we passed different view points into the canyon and also walked on – and saw – some pretty cool rock formations: different stones, cracks, cones, domes, … all a bit of an alien landscape. Also, in the middle of all these rocks was a small pond with plants growing around it, called Garden of Eden. The walk was very nice and certainly one of the highlights of our red centre trip.

Just before 9am we were back at our car. Technically we could have still just about started the walk but it was definitely pretty hot now. Instead we found some free wifi right there (who would have thought!), went back to the camp site for a shower and started driving towards Alice Springs.

Just before Alice we found a free camp site, which actually ended up getting pretty full with people heading out to Uluru. At least it meant any leftover camping stuff that we didn’t need could be passed on to others who could make more use of it.

The next day we returned the car in the morning and went to the airport for our flight back to Melbourne. In Melbourne we had one day to sort out anything we needed before South America (e.g. vaccinations for Martin) and enjoyed a couple more evenings with Christine and Bruno.

 

With this, it’s “Good-bye, Australia”. Hope you enjoyed this blog “season”.  Now we’re off to South America, blogs coming very soon (at a more reasonable pace).

Road trip through the Outback – part 1

Days on the trip: 234

You can’t really say you have travelled around Australia if you haven’t been to the Red Centre, and specifically Ayers Rock. Getting there, however, is not exactly the cheapest – but inspired by our campervan relocations to and from Italy, we looked for similar deals in Australia.  Luckily, and after a bit of searching and patience, we found a great deal of driving a campervan from Cairns to Alice Springs, exactly for when we needed it. It was a 4×4 car with a pop up roof – something we found we loved because it was so easy to set up and put down the bed.

Our route took the Bruce Highway down to Townsville and then the Flinders Highway inland.  Apparently a more adventurous route takes the Savannah way, but our relocation-rental wasn’t allowed on that road, and we only had four and a half days to cover 2500km. We bought 24 litres of water, plenty of snacks, and food – our land cruiser had a built in kitchen. GPS? Na, we figured there was only really one route.

 

Heading inland on the Flinder Way, we were warned that the road would be really boring, with nothing to see, just days of driving, and lots of kangaroos. All of this was wrong though. We didn’t see any kangaroos :(, however, the landscape was beautiful, and changing continuously. We suspect that we were lucky because it had just rained quite significantly, so it was unexpectedly green.  We drove past many creeks – some flooded, some empty, some in the middle.  The grasses changed too – small and big, grass with white tips and without – and then every now and then there would be the standard nothingness and red sand. We also had some beautifully red sunsets and sunrises. (Unfortunately we didn’t do many good photo stops of this stunning variety.)

 

Along the road we met a few other cars, not many, but enough to feel that should anything happen we won’t be on our own for ages. There were also plenty of petrol stations, and every 60-100km there were free campsites. Not really any facilities, but they often had a water tank, and it was somewhere safe along the route to stay the night.

 

With a regime of splitting the driving and swapping roughly every 200km we made good progress and entered the Northern Territory at the end of day 2. On day 3 we had our first official sightseeing spot: Devil’s Marbels. Right along the road were some large pebbles – rocks really – piled on top of each other and spread around a reasonably small area. It’s a spiritual site of Aboriginals but for most tourists just a freaky photo stop.

At the end of day 3 we were pretty close to Alice Springs. In fact, we decided not to go into Alice that day because we quite enjoyed the free campsites. We still had 1.5 days before we had to return the car and so were discussing what to do. The West MacDonnell ranges were on our sightseeing list. They are close to Alice and we could cover them in one day. Problem was that we weren’t sure whether or not the road would be paved. Our car was a 4×4 but since it’s a relocation we were told not to go offroad and there was a pretty hefty fine. We tried to ask locals, thinking they might know the quality of the road, but they didn’t.

 

As we continued towards Alice we saw the Tropic of Capricorn sign. Wohoo, not like it felt very tropical here but still a fun sign and a photo opportunity. And also, it had a sign of the roads in the red centre and which ones are sealed and which ones aren’t. Our road to West MacDonnell ranges was mainly sealed. Yay.

So we continued to Alice and to the West MacDonnell park. In the park we couldn’t see all the sights (because some of them were only unsealed) but we picked up the main places. We started with Simpsons Gap. Well, it’s a gap between two rocks with a little creek between it. Maybe not the most inspiring sight but it was prettier than it sounds..

From there on we drove quite a bit through the ranges, past different rock formations, bushes and hills. It was pretty and definitely quite different to the rest of the outback that we had seen. As we got nearly to the end we stopped at Ormiston gorge. It’s a beautiful gorge, surrounded by rocks, a beach and a creek with trees and bushes. And the best bit: you could swim in there. Unlike on Fraser Island, where all the beautiful spots were full of tourists it was pretty empty here, making it even more special.

Martin wasn’t in a swimming mood but Andi did not want to pass on the opportunity of swimming in a gorge. She quickly got changed and jumped it. It was really fantastic – swimming in paradise – probably one of the best things we did in Australia.

 

After Ormiston gorge was Glen Helen gorge, the last gorge on our West MacDonnell tour. It was quite a short drive from the Ormiston gorge, and more popular, but nowhere near as nice – we were too spoiled.

As we were leaving it was time to find a camping / parking spot as close to Alice as we could get. The closest one was about 70km away in a parking lot on a hill. It was away from the road and with a beautiful view over the ranges and so we enjoyed another BBQ in the outback in some stunning surroundings and a pretty sunset.

Reef and rainforest

Days on the trip: 230

Our final stop along the eastern coast of Australia was Cairns. Of course one of the main attractions over there is the Great Barrier Reef, so on our first day we got a boat to the outer reef. We had three introductory scuba drives at two different reefs. Andi had dived before, so she wasn’t worried about how well it would go and whether or not she would enjoy it, but for Martin it was a new experience which was a great success, after some initial problems with equalising his ears.

During our three dives we saw plenty of fish and corals. We saw different coral walls and got a real appreciation for how big they are and in how many different shapes they are. When snorkelling we only really see the flat parts, but going deeper under water we really got an appreciation for the grand coral structures, and we had to keep reminding ourselves to look up as well to fully appreciate the underwater world. We also saw a few sharks, a big turtle which looked like it wanted to high-five us, and some other big and colourful fish.  Some cheeky screenshots of some of the photos below.

At the end of our third scuba dive we did a few minutes of snorkelling. However, having just been scuba diving it really wasn’t quite the same. One new experience though was to swim in a sea of jelly fish. They were everywhere. Luckily they were completely harmless and we could just bump them out of the way – but given everything we had heard about jelly fish it still felt a bit uncomfortable to be near them.

 

After a beautifully sunny day out on the reef, we spent the next day on a tour to the Daintree rain forest. It was much wetter but luckily most of the time when we wanted to see something the rain stopped.

 

Our first stop was a river cruise, where we saw some wild crocodiles up close. It’s interesting that they really weren’t scared of the boat we were on, although the guide mentioned that he tried to get close to them with friends in a fishing boat and that didn’t work at all because the noise of the boat is different and not what the crocodiles are used to.

Next we headed to Alexandra lookout where we could see the rainforest, the beach and the sea. The weather wasn’t ideal for the perfect view but apparently a few days earlier the tour went to this point and they could see nothing at all. So I suppose we should still count ourselves lucky.

 

After a short walk through, and a nice BBQ lunch in the middle of the rain forest we went to Cape Tribulation, where the rain forest meets the reef. The rain forest goes right up to the beach and it’s a magical place to go for a little wander.

It already was a full on tour but one last stop was at the Mossman gorge. We got an introduction to the Aboriginal lifestyle, showing us some tools and plants that they used. They picked Martin to try out one of the plants, which was supposed to be like soap. But since Martin was shy Andi took his place. Turns out Andi was a much worse choice though because to get the plant to behave like soap you have to rub it quite a bit harder than Andi managed. Ah well, the Aboriginal chap gave a much better demonstration.

So finally we went to the Mossman gorge itself. Lots of people on the sailing boat in the Whitsundays said it’s a beautiful gorge and cannot be missed. Indeed, it was very nice (despite the rain) but we wouldn’t go as far as to say it cannot be missed.

We already had a pretty good taste of what the rainforest is like in Daintree, but we also decided to do the Kuranda experience. We got the railway up and then the skyrail down. On the train up we had some pretty views of the rainforest, some waterfalls and Barron gorge. It took about 2h to get to Kuranda and then we had about 2h there before our ride down.

Kuranda is a village in the middle of the rainforest. It has a few zoo style attractions, but we spent most of the time walking around the markets, tasting (and buying) mango wine, tasting freshly pressed sugar cane juice (which Martin got to press himself by riding a bike) and had a sausage lunch at a German place.

Our ride down was in a gondola. It had a few stops for boardwalk walks on the forest floor on the way, but the most impressive bit of this gondola was that we got to go right above the rain forest. We could see everything from the air and got another different rainforest experience. The construction of the gondola itself was quite interesting – in order to minimise disruption to the forest, they boxed up all the material they had to remove from the ground, before flying in the supporting poles on Russian helicopters, and then replanted the material around the base.

Our final day in Cairns and along the coast was a lazy day in town. We went to the cinema to watch the film passengers and spent the rest of the day relaxing and getting ready for our big outback drive.