Cheers mate!

After 3500km on the New Zealand roads, we have just crossed Australia from south to north! Starting in Adelaide, we drove mainly on the Stuart highway (which is more or less australian's 66 route) almost 5000km to reach the top end city of Darwin. We wanted to fell the vastness of this country (and we did!) and to discover of course the wonders located in its red central desert: Uluru, Katja Tjuta & King's Canyon. Also we wanted to avoid the more touristic east coast, and to live one new adventure in a very different environment. As Australia is not a cheap country (actually the most expansive destination in our round-the-world trip list!), we managed during those 3 weeks not to pay for any accomodation! 6 nights sleeping in our tiny car, 8 nights couchsurfing and 7 nights camping in the bush!!! So for 21 days, we were really "dust eaters in outback Australia"...

ON THE ROAD TO THE RED CENTRE

Hmm... it didn't start well cause my backpack got lost when we changed planes in Sydney, so we had to sleep a first night in the car at the airport. Not very exciting... The next morning I got my luggage back... and a Qantas pyjama that Vladi uses now! So finally we left Adelaide after a quick stop in a supermarket and started our road to the north. The first few days we drove a lot, mostly from morning till dusk, stopping in the roadhouses to drink a coffee, spotting our first road-trains (trucks with 3 or 4 trailers up to 56 meters long!), washing ourselves in the bush and sleeping in the car. We stopped in the opal mining city of Coober Pedy, where the weather is so hot that the people live underground! They really have their bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms underground... The landscapes grew more and more desertic, the soil turned red, and the colours sometimes became surrealist like the "Breakaways" (where a Mad Max movie was shot).

We also stopped several times to have our first bush walks, and we nearly got lost once! Scary when you see all the dead cows or kangaroos being eaten by crows, eagles and vultures... Very desertic indeed the center of Australia! Nothing but weak little trees, funny-shaped termite mounds, abandoned rusty cars... and you! From the main highway we were usually turning off into little dusty roads to have some rest or to picnic in awesome peaceful spots. The few pubs along the way (every 200km!) were interesting to see the local people, but it's also in those places that we took notice of the aborigenes' conditions: most of them were tramp-looking with bottles of alcohol in the hands. A pity when you think that, like the indians in America, they were the first owners of this big territory, Australia. But we had a very constructive talk about aborigenal issues with Daniel in Elliott, so I'll come back to that topic later...

The day before our arrival at Uluru, Vladi and I celebrated on a red sand dune our traditionnal "birthday", this time for eleven months on the road... Ice-cold dark local beers were welcome by a temperature of 40°C!!! We also promised ourselves to travel more slowly in Asia, meaning seeing less different places but spending more time in each of them. We were already exhausted and that was just the beginning of our crazy outback trip!

ULURU

When arriving in Yulara, the city-resort near of Uluru, we "stole" a shower in a camping! Well we just pretended to be users and went straight to the bathrooms to take a quick but vital shower... Then on the parking of the visitors center, a couple offered us a 3 days pass (50$) for the national park! Always lucky we are! So we went immediately hiking 3 hours around the base of "the Rock", of course carrying plenty of water and wearing our good hats. That was really amazing. Walking so close to this huge sandstone rock formation allows you to discover all its different shapes and colours, including some hidden waterholes, aborigenal paintings, former waterfalls and steep cliffs. Purely beautiful!

After the sunset, we went back in Yulara to meet Samantha, a sweet couchsurfing member from Hong-Kong who was willing to host us even if she had already 5 german people at home! Fortunately, we got the bed from a german couple who were nice enough to sleep in their "campervan". And believe me, that bed was a priceless gift! The other germans, Juergen, Steffi and Karolin were a little bit upset by the situation, but the french won! Hi hi! We had some comfortable nights (at last) and spent 2 nice evenings all together, especially with the funny and kind-hearted Sam! Thank you my dear friend!

KATJA TJUTA

The next day, we visited the nearby striking group of domed rocks called Katja Tjuta. After having spotted some wild camels, I went first alone walking the "Mala" gorge path (45mn return). That first glimpse was impressive, but nothing compares to the "valley of the winds" walk (3 hours) we hiked with Vladi just after...

Indeed, we hiked through amazing landscapes under a fierce sun and didn't see much other people, except a brave couple in their sixties! The odd rock formations combined with an incredible mix of colours (blue sky, sparse green vegetation and red domes) were fantastic. Only Australia's outback can offer you that kind of scenery! Great, isn't it? At sunset once again, we played our favourite shades game and it was another success...

KING'S CANYON

Leaving the south of the Northern Territory, we drove a little bit (here, that means 300km!) to reach the astonishing King's Canyon. The weather was so hot on that day, so Vladi choosed a small walk (45mn return) while I went for the big one, 3.5 hours, carrying with me 4l of water! Oh my god that was beautiful once again my friends!!! Have a look at that first serie of pics...

Sometimes walking on rocks that can shred shoes, sometimes on wooden bridges and stairs; through peaceful forgotten little valleys or along high cliffs; jumping over rock holes or bottomless faults; that was quite an adventure in a gorgeous desert setting. I was looking for the local thorn devil lizzard (an incredible lizzard whose body looks like flames!) but didn't see one. Well, except on postcards... There was some wildlife tough, but not much: only some crows, little lizzards and weird pigeons. After some hours, the water went missing (yes, the 4l were gone!) but suddenly, I saw the carpark again! Ouf!

WEST McDONNEL RANGES

We spent one night wild camping, then in the morning kept on driving and arrived in the town of Alice Springs, the only real city in the middle of Australia. Nothing really interesting to see, but a useful stop to buy supplies for a long lonely road, check emails and have a quick civilisation feeling! We headed west in the afternoon to a campground in the McDonnel Ranges. We stayed there for one night, cheating on the honesty box once again (but you know why if you have read the previous blog article about New Zealand) and taking a well-deserved shower. In the lovely Ormiston gorge, we spotted our first rock wallabies around a waterhole. They were cute, not really afraid but keeping distance to us, jumping with agility on the mountain slopes.

We also stopped to see the Ochre Pitts, some very colouful rocks used by the aborigenes for their paintings, and later at the Standley chasm where we felt tiny in the tight natural corridor compared to the steep cliffs above our heads... The West McDonnel Ranges have their share of surprises too...

DEVIL'S MARBLES

Crossing Alice Springs one last time, we drove north on the Stuart "Explorer" highway until we reached another spectacular scenery: the Devil's Marbles. With boulders shaped by time and erosion, I had another surrealist feeling while hiking through that place. The weather was very hot, actually it seemed to me that it was getting warmer and warmer going north. Vladi took a nap in the shade of a big boulder, while I had fun taking pictures of myself among those crazy rocks, as you can see below... Then I joined her, park the car under the only tree around, and we slept a good deal of the afternoon until the temperature was more bearable. Then we hit the road again, stopping in the bush for a new night of wild camping just after the city of Tenant Creek. It was so hard for me to sleep in the heat of the tent that I stayed outside until midnight reading a book under a sky with millions of stars...

TINY LITTLE ELLIOTT

If you look on a map of Australia, you'll see that Elliott is just a tiny little dot in the middle of nowhere. And it was indeed a tiny little town (200 unhabitants) where usually no one stops. But we did and truly enjoyed our stay there thanks to another fantastic couchsurfing experience and the kindness of our host, Daniel. After 4 nights of bush-camping without showers, he welcame us like old friends in his big comfy house, cooked a mean curry chicken the first night, and treated oursleves to ice-cold beers! What a great feeling to be at home!!! We enjoyed a lot watching DVDs laying on the couches, reading books or just doing nothing (for 2 days I was feeling weak and was happy to rest).

Daniel, who is a primary teacher for aborigenes kids, invited us to the local pub and to a "party", where we met the weird local population: not used to see strangers, they don't know how to behave normally, like to say hello or do some casual talk. Instead of that, they just sat down and stayed beetween themselves, too shy to try to communicate with us. A strange but interesting experience... Fortunately Daniel also invited some european girls who were working at the gas station for a few weeks, so we had someone to talk to, while Daniel was losing his money playing poker. The next morning (it was a sunday), Vladi cooked some pancakes and Daniel a fresh bread, and we had a delicious breakfast all together.

We also had a very interesting conversation with Daniel about the Aborigenes. Well you may know they were put out of their own lands and deprived of any rights, if not hunted and killed, for a long time. Lately the australian government made an official and national apology for the way they behaved towards the aborigenes, and now they are provided with houses and money (like a rent for they were the original owners of the lands). The problem is that they are kind of lost in the cities, and at the same time are slowly losing their traditions (which are only spoken, not written in books). A good part of them uses the money to buy alcohol and get drunk. Daniel, who has lived there for one year and a half now, told us that sometimes they do crazy things in their brand new houses, like trying to cook entire kangaroos in the oven, or even lighting campfires in the middle of the living-room! All is not dark and negative tough, and some aborigenes make great studies and adapt themselves to a modern life-style. Still, the harm was too strong and now the aborigenes are lost in their own country... Such a shame, isn't it?

Daniel also provided me an internet access in the school, and the local police officer (yes!) drove us one day on a dusty sandy road to a nearby lake where we had a refreshing swim surrounded by plenty of birds. Ahh... Couchsurfing! A big thank you to you, Daniel! Hopefully we'll catch each other again soon in Vietnam!

GOING NORTH... ALWAYS GOING NORTH...

After having said "farewell" to our new friend Daniel, we drove north as usual for a few hours, and in the middle of the afternoon arrived in a curious place: the Elsey national park. Of course we had noticed that there were more trees in the area, still we were surprised by the thermal springs in this dry piece of land! Truly like an oasis in the desert! Moreover, a colony of big and noisy bats was living in the patch of forest around the springs, hanging under the branches or flying above our heads... Really a weird place... and if you don't mind taking the risk of being eaten by crocodiles, you're welcome to swim in the river... Well... no, thank you!

We slept once again in the bush in the middle of nowhere, on an abandoned little road hidden behind a rocky hill. Then, guess which direction we took? NORTH, of course! Always north! We arrived a few hundreds kilometers later in the city of Katherine, and visited the nearby Nimitluk national park. The Katherine gorge was gorgeous, and swimming in the river or in the pleasant Edith Falls' pool was a real treat considering the "always hot" weather. We didn't even see a cloud for ages! The omnipresent blue sky somehow made me wish for a refreshing rain... A "ch'ti" (french people will understand) in need of rain, isn't it ironic? But at least the vegetation grew every day greener or simply more present, and we were happy about that after 10 days of full-desert trip...

LICHTFIELD NATIONAL PARK

Now we were really coming close to the top end of Australia and its northernmost city, Darwin. When I took the turn-off from the Stuart highway, I saw the sign "Darwin, 120km" and realized that Adelaide was more or less 3000km behind, and that we had already driven more than 4500km in about 2 weeks!!! Nearly the end, but not the end yet! The promising Lichtfield national park was waiting for our visit, and immediately impressed us with its tall termite mounds (up to 6 meters high!). If the highest ones were amazing, the magnetic termite mounds were even more interesting (you can clearly check the difference in the following pics): those magnetic termites are so intelligent architects that they build their flat thin mounds in a special orientation not to be burnt by the sun or blown away by the wind! I went out of the beaten path to walk through the termite mounds field, instead of contenting myself with the far away tourist look-out, and was well-rewarded with some fines insect-buildings views.

But the beauty of the Lichtfield national park was mostly in its numerous and cute waterfalls. The Florence falls and the Wangi falls were a pleasure to swim in, while the Tolmer falls look-out was a fantastic place to breath in serenity facing the greatness of nature. Near the Wangi falls, plenty of big and scary yellow spiders were waiting for dragonflies in the middle of their webs, and if you look well, you can see their tiny red babies... well... I thought they were babies, but actually they were the males, and the big yellow ones the females... ah ah ah! What a lovely world, I'm glad not to be a spider!

We camped in a local campground (with honesty box, you know our wicked technique now...) and had a peaceful sleep, while plenty of wallabies were trotting (hum, I'd rather say jumping) around the tent. I realized that when I went outside to pee (yes, I know, I'm a poet) with my headlight: there were dozens of them playing and eating in the little trees, and they didn't hide when I came around. Cute little beasts. I wonder how they taste like... just kidding! In the early morning we swam in the rockoles of a nearby river to relax and cool down our bodies after the hot night, that was brillant! We stayed there a long time, then when the crowds arrived, we left and drove finally to Darwin.

As a matter of fact, I didn't take pictures in Darwin, because it was not really an exciting city. Nevertheless we stayed there 4 days, couchsurfing 2 nights at Matt's place (a shy and quiet guy who offered us 2 relaxing days in his comfy flat, thanks mate!) and sleeping the last 2 nights in the car, to save money and avoid the expansive-ugly-noisy-smelly backpackers in town. As usual, we managed to take a shower for free (of course!) in a big caravan-and-car park! We also took advantage of the great northern territory library and its free internet access (and air-conditionning to be honest!). We spend most of our time there, updating the blog or reading very interesting books (see below), and also took the habit of eating breakfasts and taking naps at the botanic garden. You see, we had a car to sleep in but were more or less almost tramping... We didn't want to burst our daily budget, and were finally happy to leave (escape from!) Australia, the most expansive country of our trip so far, for Indonesia, one of the cheapest! Now we are in southeast Asia for 5 months: one hour full-body massage 3.80€, day-long scooter renting 4€, traditionnal meal 1.50€... do I need to continue? OK see you later folks for some asian stories... Bye!

IN FRENCH FOR THEO

Coucou filleul! Bah écoute, l'Australie c'était grand, beau, chaud, et désertique! C'était cher aussi: le pays le plus cher de mon tour du monde avec Vladi! Nous avons traversé cet énorme pays-continent du sud au nord dans une petite voiture de location, et j'ai conduit 5000km (c'est comme 5 fois la route de Merville à la mer Mediterrannée!) en 3 semaines... On a randonné dans des paysages incroyables! Le désert australien est très joli comme tu as pu le constater sur les photos, tu ne trouves pas? Moi j'ai beaucoup aimé même si le voyage était très fatigant: le climat est très chaud, l'environnement aride, et comme les prix sont exhorbitants, on a dormi pas mal de nuits dans la voiture ou en campant au milieu de nulle part dans le désert. Et oui, quand on a un budget limité, il faut savoir faire des sacrifices quant au confort... Mais je te rassure, ici à Bali en Indonésie, tout est au contraire bon marché et on se rattrape, surtout avec les massages à moins de 4€/heure! Bon à dire vrai je suis encore un peu fatigué, c'est la raison pour laquelle maintenant on va voyager plus tranquillement avec Vladi: visiter moins de pays, et moins d'endroits différents dans les pays mais en y passant plus de jours. Après presque un an de vadrouille, il faut bien se calmer un peu! Mais nos aventures continuent, encore 5 mois de découvertes... Normalement on visitera encore la Malaisie, la Thaïlande, le Cambodge, le Vietnam et le Laos, mais tout peut changer. Vive la liberté, on va encore profiter de ce voyage si riche en rencontres et en magnifiques paysages! Des bises à toutes et à tous à Merville, OK? A + Théo! Parrain.