Days 44 to 51 - Hua Hin, Bangkok, Adelaide to Uluru

Photos now added. Sorry it's taken a while but I'm sure you'll agree it's worth the wait!

Day 44 - Hua Hin
Another lazy morning. D did the Blog whilst I sunbathed.
Lunch at the resort followed by train to Bangkok. We got free pastries which were very yummy!
Arrived in Hua Lamphong station and got the MRT to Silom and sky train to our final stop. Checked into a hostel in downtown Bangkok and instantly regretted it as we had to lug our suitcases up 4 very rickety flights of stairs into a shoebox of a room.
Out for dinner - crappy Chinese meal - then on to The Moon Bar at Vertigo which was an open air bar overlooking the city. Great sights and we got to wear lovely 'spare' shoes.
Glad we did it but next time we'd eat in the restaurant and wear nice clothes!
Back to the hostel where we finally fell asleep to the sound of a small helicopter over our heads (the very large ceiling fan!).

M x

Day 45 - Bangkok to Singapore
Awoke early and straight to Starbucks for breakfast. The wonders of commercialism!Off to the tailors for what would be the final fitting - either it would be OK or we'd insist on our money back! Thankfully it was great and made of much finer material. A bit like mole skin! Hooray!

Taxi to airport where I had a massage thanks to Ben's Birthday present - thanks Ben!
Reasonable flight to Singapore with 3 seats between us. Woo!
Transferred on to the flight to Adelaide after a little bit of window shopping at the airport.

M x

Day 46 - Adelaide
Arrived to Adelaide where the sun was shining. Jumped into a taxi to the motel. Our driver was a very friendly Greek chap by the name of Ted!

Arrived at the hotel (Princes Lodge Motel) to discover our booking hadn't been received. Fortunately they had a spare room but it caused the new owner (Andy) a lot of concern and we were later to hear him on the phone trying to resolve the issue. Both shattered, we grabbed a couple of hours shut eye before walking into the city.

Stopped for lunch which was delicious then on to the Botanical Gardens. Fairly small but this meant we were able to walk around it all very comfortably and we did as the temperature meant we were able to move withoiut sweating! Lovely stroll there then on to Rundle Street for a spot of shopping.

Saw a juggling, fire eating skateboarder - our first taste of the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Deciding we were in need of refreshment, we went on to a couple of bars before dinner at an English pub!
Bought a couple of tickets to see Mark Watson (UK comic highly recommended) for tomorrow night then walked back to the hotel via a nightcap at The Archer.

A great first day in Australia.

M x

Day 47 - Adelaide
Up early and walked to Victoria Square where we got the tram to Glenelg, a beach side town.

Spent an hour or so on the beach sunbathing and reading then lunch at a lovely deli and a spot of shopping - I bought some nice trousers!

Tram back to Victoria Square when Dave realised that the guidebook was no longer with us - we'd left it in the internet cafe (well, Dave had)! So, back on to the tram to Glenelg. Good job we bought a day ticket!

Back at the hotel we had a quick change then to La Pasaena for an Italian dinner.
Strolled to the cinema where Mark Watson was showing and laughed our way through an hour of his show. Really funny and lived up to the recommmendations.

Back to the hotel where I fell asleep and Dave sat up watching Superman 3.

M x

Day 48 - The Journey Begins!

Up around 8:00 for breakfast and check out of the hotel. Taxi to Apollo to pick up our camper van. Very exciting!
Got to watch a video all about how to use the van and had a cup of tea. Finally we were allowed behind the wheel and set off.
Stopped at supermarket for supplies and to arrange our belongings in the camper.

Finally set off around 13:00 ish and headed North, 1600km of open road ahead of us!

The landscape seemed to change every few hundred km's from towns to mountain ranges, dense bushland and finally into barren scrubland - the bush! 600km later we pulled up in Glendanmbo and hired a powered site for the night.

We agreed that this was possibly the most remote place we had ever been with the most flies. The stars were incredible with no light pollution to spoil them. The toilet blocks weren't great but for only one night it was fine.

I cooked spag bol then we considered our journey for the following day before deciding to hit the sack. Unfortunately we discovered that the table couldn't be converted properly into the bed - we had a 3 inch diameter pole sticking through where the middle of the bed should be that couldn't be removed!

So, we settled ourselves down on the bench seats and slept. Surprsingly well!

M x

Day 49 - Erldunda
Up and out by 9:00am for yet more driving. Stopped at Marla for lunch and continued through to Erldunda - about 300km short of Uluru - as the light was fading. Not much change of scenery today - lots of nothingness - but we did discover that in such a remote location everyone waves at each other as they pass. We only saw about 50 cars tops all day but we had a great variety of waves. Its amazing what will pass the hours when your driving all day!

Also saw some emus drinking at a watering hole which was jolly exciting and some huge birds of prey munching on a dead kangaroo.

Really nice campsite at Erldunda and we even had a dip in the pool. Friendly kangaroo for petting and cat for cuddling. The only other kangaroos we've seen so far have been dead at the side of the road.

Both really looking forward to seeing Uluru (Ayers Rock) tomorrow.
M x

Day 50 - Kings Canyon & Uluru

Deciding that we had a 'spare' day we had another early start and drove around 250km to Kings Canyon, arriving about 11:00.
The temperature was 37 degrees C as we started the 6km rim walk - you'd have been impressed with me mum as we walked across wooden bridges spanning plummeting gorges! Only a few tears. I thought I did quite well considering.

The canyon is around 2km long with 100m sheer sides made of reddy coloured rock. Incredible. The heat definitely got the better of us both but it was awesome and we are both really pleased we made the effort to drive the extra distance to see it.

At the end of the walk the temperature had crept up to 41 degrees C IN THE SHADE!!!
Madness.
Back in the relative comfort of the air conditioned cab, we drove back South and took a turn West for Uluru. Brief stop at Mt. Conner which is a very impressive table topped mountain and then finally got our first glimpses of Uluru in the distance. Even bigger and more impressive than I had imagined.

Arriving at Kata Tjuta National Park, we paid our 25 dollars each for a 3 day pass.
Straight to the sunset viewing point where we finally managed to set up the tripod on a collander balanced on top of a slanty post - an American lady thought it was genius. Me too as it was my idea!

The sunset was spectacular. Lots of different colours and shadows. It was well worth the journey. Thanks Mark & Em for urging us to do it!

Sunset over, we drove to Yulara, the resort for Uluru where we hired another powered site and set up camp. Both shattered and headachy from the heat of the day.

Plans for sunrise at The Olga's for tomorrow - another early start awaits us!

M x

Day 51 - The Olgas
Awake at 5:00am. The camp was deserted. Not a soul in sight.
We got ourselves ready and drove to the entrance to the park. Only one other car was there and it didn't seem to be moving. I was getting a little annoyed as I wanted to get to the sunrise view at The Olgas before the sun rose. Dave decided to find out what was going on.
It turns out that Northern Territory time is one hour behind South Australia time. We had arrived at 4:55am not 5:55 am as we had thought!
Thoughts of the extra hour that we could have had in bed set in. Also looking back, there hadn't been anyone around at Erldunda when we'd left there. Not surprising as it had only been 7:00am, not 8:00!
We used the time to call mum and dad and have a cup of tea and finally the park opened.

The Olgas was pretty much deserted. Only 3 other people there. We sat and watched as the sun peaked over the horizon and started to show the brilliant colours in the rocks. A few photographs including a few of Uluru in the distance and we decided to drive into the Olgas for a walk before it got too hot.
Breakfast at the start of the walk then a 2.6km walk into Walpa Gorge. The wind was blowing so we had a nice breeze. A tour group was there so we hot footed past them and had the rest of the time in isolation. Incredible the sheer size of the rock formations around us.

Deciding that we needed to rest during the worst heat of the sun we drove back to Yulara for a snooze, some internetting - which didn't work - and a spot of shopping for food. Also spoke with Apollo about the bed and found out that we needed to 'waggle' the pole or hit it with a hammer as it was on a taper. Tonight we could sleep well. Hooray!

Refreshed after lunch, we drove to the scenic route around Uluru. A brief stop at the Cultural Centre which was packed with tour groups before the Mala Walk.
The 2km walk starts at the smame point as the climb up Uluru. The 'rope' up the side of the rock looked far too flimsy to be of any help if you did slip. I'm glad we'd decided not to do the climb.
It was closed anyway due to the heat - in excess of 36 degrees C.
The Mala walk was lovely. In the shade for a lot of the way and allowed you really close to Uluru.
I was surprised how many ridges and holes there were in it. I had always imagined it to be very smooth sided but there was evidence of massive waterfalls and wind erosion.
On to The Olgas, this time for sunset. Deciding that we'd started taking photos at 7:00pm the previous evening of Uluru, we decided that we had time for dinner before the sunset would start.
The sun looked pretty low in the sky but we decided the sunset couldn't be at a different time just one day later.
After dinner we got out of the van to see the sun dip behind the horizon. Of course it had been an hour earlier that we'd been stood at Uluru. The time difference getting us for the second time in one day! Oops!

We drove back to the camp site both tired after our very early start.

M x