A medium-sized town in the center of Australia and the starting point for Ayers Rock tours.
A view of Alice Springs and the surrounding mountain ranges from a hill in the center of town.
(photo by Karen)
| From: Jeff Nyveen To: my friends and family Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2000 05:25:19 -0400 Subject: The Red Center/Centre Kakadu was fantastic. Due to the recent rain and the passing of Cyclone Steve (it made it all the way over here from Cairns), most of the park was flooded. But we came up with an alternate itinerary that was lots of fun. We had to take a three hour detour to enter the park from the other end, but we finally got in and made the most of it. Kakadu is about 80% savannah woodlands and 20% monsoonal vineforest. Tons of wildlife, and lots of beautiful scenery. The only thing I didn't like were all the flies and mossies (mosquitos). Camping and eating was a pain in the butt. Travis, our friendly and knowledgeable driver and tour guide, was fantastic, right up there with Clarke on the tour guide scale. He really knew his shit and had a great sense of humor. He led us on a few nature hikes through the forest and up rocky embankments, and he answered every single question I had about the history, geology, and biology of Kakadu. I then returned to Darwin for one more night. After dinner, I met up with the Kakadu crew at the Victoria Hotel, got drunk, played some embarrassing bar games on stage, and then went back to the hostel to catch a few hours sleep before boarding the bus at 5:40am the next morning. The bus stopped at Katherine Gorge later that afternoon. We did some serious hiking up and down the gorge in sweltering heat. After getting lost a few times, it ended up taking an hour and a half to get to a scenic waterfall for a swim, then another hour and a half to get back. It's amazing my sandals stayed on my feet the whole time with all the heat, sweat, crumbling rocks, and twisted ankles. Kudos to Nike. The next morning we stopped at a small town called Larrimah for a toilet break. A friendly black dog named Zoe came up to me with a yellow sandal in her mouth, and we tustled for a bit before boarding the bus again. We stopped at Tennant's Creek, a tiny town with a horse farm, for the night. It had been raining there as well, getting a year's worth of rainfall in 10 days just before I arrived. The flies and mossies were horrendous, worse than Kakadu. I went to sleep in a swag (portable mattress) in my tent very early since there was nothing worthwhile to do with all the bugs outside. All of the English travelers were freaking out at all the crickets and grasshoppers. Apparently they don't have them back home. We hopped on the bus again this morning and stopped at Devil's Marbles, a scenic spot with lots of cute little round boulders stacked on top of one another. While waving flies away from my face, I managed to take a few pictures. We stopped at Ti (pronounced TEE) Tree for lunch, and I bought a painted kangaroo figurine carved out of wood. The guy behind the counter then offered me his collie for $21 plus $45 shipping to the States. We passed the Tropic of Capricorn and finally rolled into Alice Springs this afternoon. It's very hot and very dry here. And no flies or mossies. Yay. The bus ride, booked through Oz Experience but run by Northern Territory Adventure Tours, was treacherous. Too many bugs, eating every meal out of rusting metal plates got old, the music on the bus was always loud techno, and our driver, a native Australian, had a hard time understanding me when I spoke. Most of the landscape was hilly, with small trees and patches of tall grass all the way down, a lot like New Mexico or Arizona. They say that the area is uncharacteristically green because of all of the recent rain. Normally, this is called the Red Center because of the rust-colored sand and barren landscape. In the next couple of days, I'll be touring Ayers Rock and King's Canyon, the main attractions of central Australia. Then I board the Oz Experience bus and travel down to Adelaide. I'm considering extending my trip once again, to the full stay that my current ticket allows for (6 months). That would have me home in mid-June. I just feel like I might need a little more time in Melbourne. I have some friends to visit there, and from what I hear it's one of the nicest cities in Australia. Many wrote explaining that coffee was a diuretic, making me pee more. But perhaps I wasn't being clear. I've been having more Number Two's lately, and I was wondering it *that* was caused by the coffee. If I was just peeing a lot, I wouldn't have cared so much about the piss-drenched toilet seats. But I was pooping a lot more, and that's why the wet toilet seats were an issue. Kristin mentioned that coffee is indeed a laxative, so I guess that means that I'll be cutting back on my cappuccinos. Also got a lot of interesting responses about the rainbow effect caused by my polarizer when taking pictures out of an airplane window. Lots of creative guesses, but I think Rick nailed it: Taking photos through an airplane window is weird because the window is made of Lexan and has two pieces sandwiched together. Between the two pieces is a small vacuum. The Lexan is a very strong polymer that probably reacted with the polarizing lens. What you were seeing was the "structure" of the Lexan.Thanks Rick. Please forward all polymer-related questions to Rick at kendall@net1.net. Liam: I think you would be happy making a living as a tour guide down here in Australia. The guides that I have had all love what they do, love nature, meet lots of interesting people, and apparently get laid as much as they want to. Forget about research and all that crap. This is the life. Ghita: Just after leaving Katherine Gorge, we drove by a small town named Beswick. No Regrets. Jeff |
| From: Jeff Nyveen To: my friends and family Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 03:41:07 -0400 Subject: Memories of Kakadu Was in a bit of a rush with my last e-mail. More memories of Kakadu: Our first stop was at a little restaurant/bar just outside of the park and home of Charlie the buffalo from Crocodile Dundee. Then we took a cruise down Adelaide River, a tributary of Alligator River (named by idiotic explorers who thought that the crocodiles were alligators). Our boat was designed to give us a close-up view of crocs jumping out of the water when they dangled red meat over the side of the boat. Pretty exciting stuff. NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART... We also got to hear the story about Ginger Meadows, an American tourist who was attacked and eaten by a croc. Emma, one of the girls on my bus, bought a book called "Crocodile Attack" which told the story in gut-wrenching detail. Apparently, Ginger, a perky 25-year-old redhead and a good swimmer, was swimming in a small creek with her friend Jane. Jane wanted to turn back because, you guessed it, she had a "bad feeling" about it. Moments later, one of their tour guides spotted the croc from an embankment above the water. He screamed to the girls to get out of the water, but they both froze. At the last second, Ginger decided to make a break for the shore while Jane remained frozen in the water. The croc turned toward Ginger and chomped on her, pulling her underwater. Things were silent for a moment before she emerged again in the crocs mouth, holding her arms out but not making a sound. The croc then pulled her under again, and that was the last time she was seen. We walked through the rainforest and learned a lot about the different fauna and flora of Kakadu. He convinced us to suck on weeds and eat green ants. Their green butts taste a lot like lemon. One of the German guys travelling with us said it tasted like the ants were "pissing on your tongue." Every time we got to a creek, naturally, everyone was scared shitless of the crocs. We hiked up to Nourlangie Rock, one of the oldest rock formations in the park. An overhang on one side has been an Aboriginal shelter for thousands of years and is covered with ancient Aboriginal rock art. Most of the paintings are relatively new, dating from the arrival of European explorers about 200 years ago. But we saw one kangaroo, painted in red and about 3 feet tall, which is at least 4,000 years old, and possibly 30,000 or 40,000 years old, painted at a time when when the coastline was hundreds of kilometers farther out and Kakadu was a desert. Kangaroos, which thrive in drier climates, haven't been in Kakadu for thousands of years. It's mind-boggling. Definitely the oldest thing I have ever seen. Travis told us that the last member of the Aboriginal tribe that painted all of Kakadu's rock art died, unfortunately, in 1968, so there aren't many people around who know what all the paintings mean or how old they are. We know that all of the rock art was painted by men, they had a god which threw yams at promiscuous young women, and that every god had an enormous penis, but not much else. Travis went on to give us a short history of Aboriginal life in Australia. The story is similar to the US. Nasty White Europeans came over in huge, menacing boats and proclaimed the land as their own. They dealt with the Aboriginals much like they dealt with the American Indians, kicking them off their land, betraying them, poisoning them, enslaving them, and taking their women. Then, after effectively taking over the continent and destroying the Aboriginal way of life forever, they found a way to coexist. Apparently, every Aboriginal tribe in Australia, even those which distance themselves from Western civilization, retain some aspect of European culture, whether it's clothing, drinking, schooling, or Nintendo. Things will never be the same for them. Interestingly enough, the last Aboriginal clan in Australia to come into contact with the White man did so in the 1960's. It was near Alice Springs. On the way out of the park, Travis showed us a strychnine tree and told us not to eat the berries. Then we drove by a termite hill that was about 20 feet tall and about 70 years old. Travis knew everything about termites, too. Our last stop was at Harris Springs, where enormous barramundi (the bad-ass Australian fish to catch and eat) make their home. It's a good thing I left Kakadu when I did. The rains have returned, and the entire park and surrounding towns are underwater. No Regrets. Jeff |
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