Gecko Trek - Adelaide to Alice Springs

DAY 9 - 13/3/3

We all woke up alive next morning with no tell tale black limbs from any snake bites.

This is the river where the frogs hang out, you get to it by walking through some thick, knee length grass muttering 'don't be any snakes, don't be any snakes...'

After brekkie, we un-hooked the trailer and 4x4'd it up to Palm Valley. Once we were there we did a walk through the valley then climbed up and went back along one edge. I could tell you all about it but it pretty much does exctly what it says on the tin... Valley. Palm Trees. Its just unusual because its in the middle of the desert.

We got back to camp, hooked up the trailer and headed out. We got to a creek and there was an aboriginal family sitting under a tree and a 4WD sitting in the creek, with a couple of the men scratching their heads looking under the bonnet. A suspected dead battery, we all got out while Nick tried to give them a jump start.

After a while, another aboriginal 4WD turned up for the one stuck in the creek. They tied on a towrope and tried to haul them out, but ended up wheel spinning in the sand. They spun their 4WD round and pushed the original one up onto the bank, the 'Roo-bars' bending big chunks of the front of it. Nick tried driving out but got stuck in the tracks where the new guys had kicked up the sand.

The new guys found a road round behind the original 4WD, now at the top of the slope, then pushed it down and up the creek (bending the back doors and bumpers) until they got the engine started. They both drove off leaving us stuck.

Luckily someone else came along with a towrope and managed to pull our truck out. To do it, we had to un-hook the trailer, get pulled out, then attach the rope to the trailer and pull that to a point where we wouldn't get stuck in the sand again. I kicked off my flip-flops, forgetting it was midday and my bare feet were about to be barbecued in the hot sand! It took four of us running along in front of the trailer, holding the connecting pole as level as possible in case it fell forward and jammed into the ground.

We gave the guy who pulled us out a couple of beers as a thankyou.

We started chatting to Nick about the disregard the aboriginal guys had for us, as it was directly their fault we ended up getting stuck. He told us about how things like getting a $40,000 Landcruiser stuck doesn't matter that much to outback aboriginal people. Many of them just don't understand what $40,000 is. They can't, don't and won't get jobs because theres still a lot of discrimination against them by white Australia. They're discriminated against because they aren't brought up with our 'Western' beliefs in education and the pursuit of money and that makes it hard for them to integrate into the white population. The government gives them benefit money because of this (and the whole colonial guilt thing) and this 'Easy option' gives them no incentive to even try and join the rest of the population. They don't have to work for their money and as such, they have no idea how much money is 'Worth.'

This wouldn't seem like so much of a problem if the young people were being guided in the traditional ways and the money was being used as a means to survive. The damning thing is, the traditional ways are being lost as they take the 'Easy option' of accepting benefits. The young outback aboriginals tend to get the money and spend it (as young people do) on booze, a problem that's got so bad its led to the banning of alcohol in many aboriginal settlements. It's a complex problem and not one easily solved in the bullshit pages of wheresthatluckybastard.com, but a problem that's well worth mentioning. One thing I can say for certain, is that it's a shame such a fascinating and honourable society has been reduced to such a predicament.

(That isn't to say that all aboriginal people are like this, its wrong to pigeonhole an entire race of people - there are 'Western' urban-aborigines and of course people like Reg, this is just what I came across on the tour.)

Anyway, back to the bullE

Lunchtime consisted of ham, salad and fly sandwiches (we had a truly staggering amount of flies buzzing round us that day!) Then it was off to Gosse Bluff (Tnorala) a giant meteorite/comet crater.

This is the 3rd largest meteorite crater in the world and I've been looking forward to it since Nick first said about it. Having seen it from the outside, I was a little bit let down to get inside and find it was quite green and there wasn't a huge great desolate hole in the ground!

Eager for information I got to the info hut and I found 'Tnorala' was created by a giant woman who when a warrior approached, dropped her giant baby from the sky which...hang on..no, no. Forget this aboriginal crap and give me some proper science. 'Gosse Bluff' was created when a rock over a kilometre in diameter, travelling at thousands of miles an hour smashed into the earth 142.5 Million years ago. (Just a sidenote, Oz history seems to have only three chunks - 'x' million years for the geology, 'y' thousand years for the aboriginal stuff and 'z (<2)' hundred years for the colonial history.) The blast would've been about a million times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.

The crater is so old, the original crater wall was worn away by rain and general erosion, then 'x' million years ago untill today, land slippage and continuing erosion have worn away the surrounding earth, exposing the underlying (and underground) compressed rock from the original impact. (Wow I think I'm getting this geology stuff!)

After Gosse Bluff we entered the 'Western Max' Ranges. Which I thought sounded way too Pepsi for the rest of the names in Oz, but it turns out to be short for 'MacDonnel.'

As we were still a day ahead of schedule and further North than we should've been, Nick took us to another place he hadn't been to for years, Roma Gorge. We set up camp in a canyon about three quarters of the way to the mouth of the gorge. There were wild cows walking around and we also heard a donkey but they were nothing compared to the dingoes. We didn't see one, but about 4 in the morning, I woke up and heard a bunch of them howling. I suppose I should've been scared but being a 'dog person' generally, I was just impressed and felt privileged to be in place where I could hear such an amazing sound in its natural surroundings.

DAY 10 - 14/3/3

Woke up. Rolled my swag. Felt a bit nippy so I put my jumper on. Felt more relaxed for some reason. Wandered over to get some breakfast. Cereal in the bowl. The sun crept up over the mountains and within a few seconds they were there. The sun rising below the mountains had meant for the first time I was actually up before the flies. The creeping sun had brought the temperature up just enough to wake them all up, hungry to start their one-day of living. BzzzzzZZzzZZZzzzZzzZZzz....Ears...Nose...Eyes...Mouth... Ah well, time to put the fly net on.

We drove up to Roma Gorge, which was beautiful in the shadows of the morning. I didn't take my camera, which was a shame, because its somewhere I know I'll never see again.

Next was a stop off at a lookout over the Western Max, then onto Glen Helen. A tiny resort where we could go swimming in the Finke river (which we all did, as it was the last day we just ignored any snakes!) and buy ice cream. There was also supposed to be a helicopter ride but it wasn't there that day. I heard Nick and another guide saying how bad the flies had been. The recent crazy weather meant we'd had the worst flies in at least 20 years (Nick's Career)! The other guide said he'd even seen other guides wearing flynets it'd been so bad.

After Glen Helen, we went to Ellery Creek, a huge water hole and gorge.

Heres a bunch of us swimming

Heres Vicki, me and Sandra

.

Heading towards Alice Springs, we all pretty much counted down the kilometres. We didn't really want it to end. Nobody had really gone without anything. We'd eaten well. Seen some amazing things, slept under the stars, seen and heard and really felt like we'd got to know the outback (we'd have been lost without Nick of course but it's a nice illusion!)

That night we all went out for a meal at Bojangles a 'Real outback' kinda place full of blokes with mullets and big 'taches, and a huge Boa Constrictor behind some glass next to the table.

Much drinking was done. Including the first time in ages I've shot some Tequila and not had to go for a TC* shortly after! We left about 1am when it closed and tried to get in to Melanka's, a bar just down the road. As I bowled up to the shortish bouncer, he started putting his hands up going "No sorry Mate, we're closed" I looked at him and a name flashed across my mind. "I know you" I said. "Your name's Dan Falzon" You used to be in Neighbours, my Sister used to fancy you!" He looked a bit embarrassed so I drunkenly carried on. "Shouldn't you be in films now or something? Like Mike from Neighbours? Don't you realise how big Neighbours is in the UK?!?" He looked a bit sheepish and gave me a slightly embarrassed 'Please just fuck off' face.

I saw him the next night too but every time I looked up at him and he realised it was me, he kept disappearing inside as if he had something important to do. Earlier that evening, Christer, Mel, Steffi, Annette and I all went out for a big steak meal in a nice restaurant as a welcome alternative to our outback roughing it. I also met up with Tom and Joe and the rest in Melanka's who'd arrived that day from their 6 day trip.

I chilled at the hostel next day. There's not masses of stuff to see in Alice Springs. Some Aboriginal crafts shops, some restaurants, and enough shops to make it seem like a proper 'English' town (a bit like Romford!!) Though instead of having groups of young skinheads being drunk and abusive, they have groups of young aboriginal people. One night I was on my own walking down a road that looked a lot like South Street (so I felt at home) and there was a bunch of them sitting drinking around a bench (they come to Alice to get drunk for a week and spend their benefit). I'd heard them shouting stuff at people so I gave them a bit of a stare as I went by to let them know I wasn't 'not' looking at them. As I got further away, I heard a couple of them shout 'White Dog' and something about staring or looking their way. It made me laugh. I've heard them call people 'White Dog' before and I'm sure they think its really bad but I've got a White Dog at home, her name's Milly and she's lovely. Ah well. Cultural differences I suppose.

My last evening in town and walked up to the Anzac Memorial at sunset for a view of the city. I met Mel up there, which was good, as I thought everyone had left town.

After that, I met up with Joe and Tom etc for 'Just one' final one in Bojangles.

I had a superb couple of weeks and i'm really glad I did it. (I almost didn't do it. The only person I'd spoken to who'd been there before was one of my Dad's mates from the Bowls Club. I remember him saying "Yeah, I did Uluruloo. What it is right, is you travel free days froo the desert on a bus, then you get there. And all it is, is a bloody great big red rock! Then its back on the bus and free days back?!? Whassapoint eh?")

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