Australia 2011 - Day 8 - The Stuart Highway

Sept. 23rd

We woke up early in the morning, probably around 3, and decided, since it was cold and neither of us could sleep, to head further up the road. We turned on the heat and were nice and toasty, and again we didn’t encounter much of anyone, roos included. We stopped at the next rest area, finally warm enough, and got another hour or so of sleep before officially starting our day. Awkward and cold as sleeping in the car was, it really didn’t seem dangerous, nor was it particularly frowned upon out here, so we were excited to have a newfound method of lodging that wouldn’t break the bank. Granted, not being able to shower or really deal with hygiene was a bit unpleasant, but this was the outback! Who would care?! Some of the people we’d see in our travels surely hadn’t bathed in weeks. We got over it quickly.

Only stopping at the occasional station to get gas, we finally made our way into Coober Pedy, the self-proclaimed opal capital of the world. Opal mining is definitely the main industry, with claims being found all around town. In order to deal with the extreme heat of this part of the outback, most residents live in dugouts, bored out underground dwellings. We were glad to be here at the end of winter when it was still cool, if you consider low 90’s to be cool. Apparently the golf course in town, which I’d have loved to have experienced had I known and had we had more time, is only open at night, has no grass save for the turf the players carry with them with which to tee off, and is played with glowing balls. What fun! We’d hoped to eat at the underground diner, but it was sadly closed. Instead, we ate at a small sandwich shop and then attempted noodling, which is the term for opal mining. There are large hills of dirt on the east side of town through which you can dig in search of your own opals, free to keep. We noodled like mad and found a few things that may have been something (but probably weren’t) before we made our way to one of the local opal shops where I bought a small bag of dirt to sift through that would definitely have some in it. I also tried my luck at the noodling bin out front and got some nice ones, though I think most of the above would be lost later on in the trip.

Another issue I had upon arrival in Coober Pedy was my camera’s battery. It was nearly dead, and, not having stayed at a motel overnight, I couldn’t do much about it. So we visited the local information center, and I stealthily plugged it in while we read about the local attractions. I was going to ask permission, but the employees were busy with other people and I couldn’t wait anymore. I’m sure by the time we left I didn’t have enough power to last very long, so when we checked out the underground opal museum, I did the same thing there. Terrible, I know, but I’m sure it didn’t use that much electricity.

From here, we continued northward, stopping at a few more roadhouses for gas. It would have been interesting to stay at one of these rugged outback stations, but we liked to drive into the night and by then everything seemed to be closed…including gas pumps! Which reminds me, nowhere in Australia did we find credit card-rigged pumps. Everything was pay inside only, which got to be inconvenient, especially with night driving because the stations would close down and you’d be out of luck and out of gas.

Our only interesting stop was at the border between South Australia and the Northern Territories. I guess we weren’t supposed to drive into the Territories, according to our car rental company, but here we were! Rebels to the max! By now, dusk was settling in, so we booked it. We gassed up at Erlunda Roadhouse and started our way west, toward Uluru (Ayers Rock) and away from the Stuart Highway. We got about 70 km in before we decided to pull into a rest stop and call it a night. Once again, we enjoyed sleeping under the stars even though it got ridiculously cold again. The peace was incredible!

Australia 2011 - Day 7 - Adelaide!

Sept. 22

After our stressful encounters in Melbourne, we were a little hesitant to take on Adelaide. Big cities, we’ve determined, just aren’t our thing. Luckily, Adelaide is a bit smaller than Melbourne, but still confusing when you’re trying to juggle directions and driving in a strange new way. Still, we wanted to see some of it – that’s why we were here!

We made it into the city and decided to park at the convention center because it was one of the first lots we encountered within a reasonable distance of the sights we wished to see. Our first stop was the botanic gardens, which weren’t quite as impressive as the one in Melbourne, but still very nice. We saw an incredible assortment of birds in the area, including our first visual of a kookaburra! Lots of lorikeets and ducks were spotted, too. We heard frogs, but I was never able to catch sight of one.

On the gardens’ grounds, we came across the National Wine Center. Run by the University of Adelaide, this serves as a venue for a multitude of functions, while also showcasing the region’s wine industry. We tried out the various hands-on exhibits, and even got to run a computer program that tests our winemaking prowess. It was a nice little change of pace.

From the gardens, we crossed the street and took a tour of the historic Ayers House. Considered to be one of the finest examples of Colonial Regency architecture, Henry Ayers (of Ayers Rock fame, as well as seven-time Premier, eleven-time Cabinet Minister, and President of the Legislative Council for 12 years) purchased the property in 1871. The site was host to incredible parties, dinners, and luncheons, serving politically important guests through the years. It was a large and lovely home, and a very interesting tour.

Once the tour ended, we had hopes of meeting Hilda, a friend from my Murdoch University days, for lunch. I’d programmed her number into my phone, but of course the flaky thing didn’t save it properly, so we had to book it back to the car to get her number. My feet were a little blistery from all the hiking over the last few days, so Nate ran ahead, and I would meet him on his return. Well, by the time I finally got to the car park, we’d never passed! So I sat outside the building, not sure which exit he’d take, and waited and waited. And waited. The wind blew aggressively and the passers-by looked on coldly. Where was my husband?! More than a half hour passed, and I couldn’t imagine where he was! I started heading back the way I’d come, but turned back, just in case. Finally, from the direction of Ayers House, Nate appeared, freaked out for not having found me. I have absolutely NO idea how we could have missed each other, but it was really worrisome! I joked that he probably thought I liked Australia so much that I just took off and decided to take on a new identity in my new city. But really, how weird! We were so relieved and vowed not to leave each others’ sight again if we could help it.

Number in hand, and much later than I’d intended, I rang Hilda and left her a message. We decided to do some more sight-seeing while awaiting her call, but it was so late I figured she’d be busy back at work. Our next order of business was to find a pie floater. Sounds lovely, yes? Wait ‘til you hear what it is! According to our guidebook, pie floaters are Adelaide’s signature food item. It is an inverted meat pie, sitting in a bowl of thick pea soup and doused with ketchup. Mmm. The locals love ‘em, and other people find them repulsive. Still, I always try to sample the local cuisine. We asked around, and nobody seemed to know what we were talking about. Nate was convinced that this was some sort of elaborate Aussie prank, but a google image search provided us with many actual pictures of such. One person suggested we try the Adelaide Central Market – where anything and everything can be found if it exists. So we headed over to see what was what.

Australian markets are really something else! If it weren’t for the hordes of people, they would be a lot of fun. So many neat and unusual items are sold here, from exotic foods to clothing to odd knickknacks you won’t find in regular shops. We searched hurriedly, pausing at pie shops in particular, all to no avail. The woman at the information kiosk had no clue what we were talking about, either, which was disappointing. I was starting to think we should have braved the drive to North Adelaide to the restaurant that is known for them, but alas. We found our way over to the Asian food court for lunch, instead.

Now, I’m not usually a fan of Asian food (save for sushi), but Australia does it right! They have some of the best Asian food ANYWHERE! The Asian food court is ridiculous! There are at least 20 different places from which to choose, each with a huge menu. I could have sat there all day hemming and hawing about what to eat. Once place had a $5 lunch deal, which is extremely cheap by Aussie standards, so I opted for chicken teriyaki, which was boring but so good! I could see staying in Adelaide just to try all the food!

After lunch, it was starting to get late, and we had a long way to go, so we headed north. Once we made it to Port Augusta, home to the southern end of the famous Stuart Highway, and the last town of any note for a very long time, we tried in vain to find a room. All the places we saw were booked, and no one at the motels could recommend any places beyond what we saw. It was nightfall, and while we were really nervous about driving with the kangaroo danger, we decided we’d head up the Stuart Highway and drive until we found a rest stop, hoping they’d be as common as they were further south.

The Stuart Highway is the only paved road that runs from south to north through the red center of Australia. A two-laned highway for the most part, it is largely uninhabited save for the occasional station (gas, restaurant, convenience store, sometimes lodging) every 100 miles or so. Despite its remoteness, you’re never really that far from other humans, as road trains, enormous trucks that have up to 5 trailers, are a common sight. We were both uncertain about this leg of our journey, mostly because we’d be so far away from civilization, so taking the plunge and starting out in the dark of night was a bit daunting. We were greeted to intense darkness all around, and didn’t pass much of anyone before we made it to a rest stop. We were feeling good and decided to keep going, figuring we’d get as far as we could in what time we had. When we approached the second stop, we thought it best to cease our journey for the night. Another car with a camper was parked there as well, so it appeared that this type of lodging was common. We pulled into a spot far enough away, rolled back our seats (which went back the entire 90 degrees!), and enjoyed the incredible view of stars in the outback sky. The glow from Port Augusta was nearly undetectable. It was just us and the immense vastness of space. Incredible.

Australia 2011 - Days 5 and 6 - Victoria and South Australia

Sept. 20th

We headed out early and wound our way north to Grampians National Park. Unfortunately our Garmin was confused and gave us bad directions…we wondered why we kept going past the mountain range that was surely part of the park! We turned around and got our bearings right and headed into the park. Australia has a lot of national parks – I love that about it! The only thing is that their national parks are often more like what we would call national monuments or state parks in the states. They’re wonderful treasures, but they don’t have the extreme geographical oddities that our national parks seem to. I’m glad they’re preserving all this land, though. Here we were treated to a huge mountain range by Australian standards. Sadly, most of the roads up to them were inaccessible, so we stuck to the lowlands. We found our way to a fantastic billabong with a large mob of kangaroos basking on the shore. We got some excellent pictures of them, and then were treated to the company of a huge flock of cockatoos, hundreds of which coated the branches of all the trees. It was loud and riotous, especially when they decided to fly, but incredible nonetheless.

Then I saw it. A bird I had only glimpsed briefly before was hanging out near another car. This stunning bird was red of the brightest intensity with sapphire blue wings. A crimson rosella! I tried to get some pictures while not disturbing the family nearby. That’s when I saw they were luring the bird over with food, letting it alight on their hands! Now I’m not a fan of feeding the wildlife, but I just HAD to see this magnificent animal up close. I desperately searched the trunk for anything that might resemble bird food. But wait!! I had some granola bars that were full of seeds! Voila! So once the family bored of their fun, I went over and held my hand up to the duo of birds watching suspiciously from the tree. Suddenly one swooped down and landed on my hand, eagerly eating away. That about made my decade! Beaming, we continued down the road to a waterfall where we heard our first kookaburra! Nothing says Australia like that! We ate lunch at a café in Halls Gap where we discovered you really don’t get water unless you ask for it. It was too busy to ask, so I just waited until I got back to the car and downed a bottle or two there.

Continuing up, we left the park briefly and saw the world’s largest koala, which is a gift shop and petting zoo attraction. We just did our photo op before heading back into the park to do another, more strenuous waterfall hike. On our way out of the park, we saw two emus right near the road! So cool! From here, we drove and drove and drove, not seeing much of anything, but getting nervous as dusk settled because the danger of roos on the road increases substantially. We listened to Triple J, the Australian national music station and heard a lot of “Somebody That I Used to Know” and “Mr. Saxobeat”. We stopped in Bordertown, at the border of Victoria and South Australia. It seemed quite pleasant, though the name would make me picture something akin to Juarez or something. It was nightfall as soon as we left, and we made it a point to stop as soon as we saw a place. We were comforted (?) by all the signs warning about weary driving and how deadly it can be, but only because they were usually paired with a pull off where you could sleep if needed. Luckily, we found one of those generic bar motels sponsored by West End Beer in Tailem Bend. We checked in at the bar and found our way up to an incredibly skeezy room in a very dark corridor frequented by unsavory types. I wasn’t looking forward to using the communal bathroom, though luckily it was women only. We decided to go back down to the bar for a beer, since Nate wanted to try the beers from every state. While there, we were subjected to the newest episode of “Two and a Half Men,” which was the first to feature Ashton Kutcher. It’s funny, too, because we’d heard them talking about it on the radio, and we were discussing how much we dislike the show. I guess it’s all the rage in Australia, though, as was evidenced by everyone in the bar giving the tv their undivided attention. Then we called it a night.

Sept. 21st

Still in the first week of our trip, it felt like we had eternity ahead of us. Still, I knew this time would go by quickly, so I vowed to make the most of every moment. We headed toward the wine country of South Australia, bantering about crazy things as we often do. Things like whether the fish in the Pacific Ocean consider our Pacific Northwest the Pacific Northeast, because that’s what it really is! *sigh* On our drive we found ourselves in some of the most picturesque places ever! Lots of rolling pastureland full of sheep and cows and dogs and horses. It was so lush and comforting. I just imagined that the animals would wake up every morning and sing with joy about a brand new day in this little paradise. We set our sights on McLaren Vale, in the center of wine country, after reading that they offered camel winery tours. That’s right. A winery tour on camel back. I was DYING to ride a camel, and we enjoy winery tours, so how unique and perfect is this?! Unable to find any definitive info on this attraction, we made our way to the information center at the edge of town. They gave us the number to call, but unfortunately they no longer do the tours, but it gave me an idea for a side business out in Corrales, NM!

Slightly dejected, we wandered around the vineyards surrounding the info center and then proceeded to hike along the Shiraz Trail, a lovely path that skirts a number of private vineyards and looks out along the lovely countryside. This was heaven! On our way back, we stopped for two tastings: the Serafino Winery and another pretentious one whose name I forget. Then we had lunch at Oscar’s, an Italian restaurant, where Nate got to sample Vale Ale. I don’t think he was too impressed, though.

We left lovely McLaren Vale on our way toward the coast. We stopped along some incredible overlooks and geocached a bit. We espied some lovely views of Kangaroo Island. We’d considered visiting, but it was expensive and they required a stay of at least one night. We didn’t know if we’d have the time, so we opted against it. I had hoped to see some wild penguins, and I knew this would be our best chance, so that was disappointing, but at least we saw penguinland from afar!

That night we stayed at an ensuite motel in Glenelg that was suggested in our guidebook. It was decent, and we were glad to have our own bathroom again. After checking in, we high tailed it to the beach about 3 blocks away in hopes of catching the sunset. We just missed it, but we enjoyed seeing the fiery colors that persisted in the sky. It was peaceful and lovely as the Southern Ocean gently lapped the shore. Then we headed over to the Holdfast Hotel which hosts a brew pub. They seated us outside where we hoped to get dinner, but they seemed to forget about us, so we headed to the bar where we sampled their brews including something called a Frooty Tingle which resembled carbonated antifreeze, though I rather liked it. We got a mediocre pizza from a small place near our motel and called it a night.