Leaving Brisbane - Back to Los Angeles

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We were up early this morning for a mid-morning international flight. Brisbane is a bigger airport than Darwin and they asked for international flyers to arrive 3 hours in advance. Our motel's airport shuttle options were 7am or 8:15am. We opted for 7am. We were given a key to the ground floor breakfast room yesterday and had the room to ourselves early this morning. We each had a bowl of cereal with 2 slices of toast. I had coffee. It was fine. It was convenient. The shuttle was on time and again it was only us. We used the self service kiosk to print our boarding passes and luggage tags and had no wait to drop bags. We used the restrooms and visited a last souvenir shop before descending to departures clearance. We filled out a departure form and got in one of many short lines for security. We went through all the clearances without a hitch. They were definitely checking ID against boarding pass here. Still we had a couple of hours to kill on the other side of security. We ate some more and drank some more and Clay bought some Maltesers for the plane. We needed to spend the last of our Australian Dollars. We went to the departure gate about 15 minutes before boarding should start. We could see the jet sitting outside so that was good and boarding still hadn't started. At some point, the economy line up extended past our seats and we were seated far from the counter. We looked and the line was moving and economy passengers were being boarded. There had been no announcement to begin boarding. We walked around that line and got at the back of the much shorter Premium Economy line and walked right on. Premium Economy is a great option and closer to what business class used to be.

The plane seemed pretty fully booked, at least our section. The flight was only about 12 hours. It still seemed harder than the other direction, which lasted almost 2 hours longer. I think because we left LAX at night and we left Brisbane in the mid-morning. They served lunch almost right after departure, not long after they turned off the cabin lights and served a snack a few hours later. They turned the lights back on and served breakfast a couple of hours before landing. We got in about 5:50am. Evidently, LAX rules don't allow them to open the doors until after 6am, so we sat at the gate for 10 minutes while we waited. That was the only delay. Everything else took less than a half hour and we used the restrooms. We used self service kiosks for immigration and customs was cursory. Our luggage came out onto the carousel as we approached. We called the Best Western Airpark and they sent the shuttle van right over. All this super efficiency put a kink in our plans! We were at the hotel before 7am and the Getty Villa doesn't open until 10am. We were told they couldn't put us in a room until at least 9am and we understood, of course. We stored all our luggage with them and told them we'd be back. We walked down the block to Randy's Donuts which we couldn't help but notice last time we were here. What we didn't realize is that it is takeout only or drive through without any seating. We bought our donuts and walked right back to sit in the small lobby with them. The shuttle driver and the day's new desk attendant both encouraged us to go over to the breakfast room and eat their Randy's Donuts but we already had all we needed. It was very nice of them to offer since our early arrival without plans was our problem. We got ice water and coffee in the lobby with our donuts. We watched a news program on their TV and checked email. In no time, the girl told us she had room 214 available for us. We jumped up as we had been having trouble staying awake. Since we had an hour before the Getty Villa opened, we laid down and slept for an hour.

It was past 10am when we walked out and Clay ordered an Uber. He accepted a shared ride and this time we got one. He was in the Kia when it arrived and he got out in Santa Monica. We continued to the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. They were serious about requiring timed tickets. Our driver was not allowed to enter until we had presented our tickets and they were collected. When we got the tickets in February it was because of a special exhibit and we could get open entry tickets good anytime within a time span. That was good news. The bad news is that the exhibit was temporarily closed while we were away and it was still closed today. There was no information or mention of the closure and of course we had surrendered the tickets in the car and had no way to double check ourselves. I posted the link above that confirms there was a Roman Mosiacs exhibit that is temporarily closed. We were told that the 2nd floor of the Getty Villa was closed due to a major renovation, but it sounded like that was for a many months or years long project. So we did enjoy the Villa but spent most of our time trying to find Roman Mosaics! We were too tired to continue by about 2pm.

We went out and since there was no cell reception out there Clay had to stay in the Villa's wifi area. This was wreaking havoc among the Uber drivers and users. Our ride over cost about $17 and our ride back when ride sharing was not offered was $53. It was a good thing the Getty is free!

Clay wanted to eat at Roscoe's across the street from the Best Western again. We had seen at least 20 people in a line outside before 8am this morning. We assumed that was the opening hour. There was still a line at 10am and when we got back at 3pm. We went in and got on the list and went back outside to sit on a retaining wall and wait. It was very loud and busy and the kitchen and servers seemed to be having some difficulty with filling orders properly but they were working hard and I thought the food was better this time than last. Clay didn't. We both got filled up though and it was the cheapest meal we'd had in months. Eating out seems much more expensive in Australia.

It is 5:45pm and Clay has already showered and gone to bed. I am trying to at least wait until it gets dark!  We will take the 7am hotel's airport shuttle in the morning. Their complimentary breakfast opens at 6am, so we'll have that before we go. Something is going on with LAX and AA terminal assignments according to the AA emails we keep getting. We have checked in online and been issued boarding passes but have not been assigned a terminal yet. I hope we get one assigned and can learn it before we shuttle over in the morning as LAX is a big place and we'd like a ride to the right terminal and not just any one. We'll see. Tomorrow we'll be home at any rate. It will take us a while to get adjusted to the right time zone and date I'm sure but it will be good to be home. This trip has been particularly hard for us and we're both rather regretting booking that 2nd cruise onboard. Fingers crossed it will be a good trip and easier and we'll be glad we did it in the end.

My next post will be from home.

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Leaving Darwin - Back to Brisbane

Today is the beginning of the end. We slept in. We went down for our complimentary breakfast and came back upstairs to finish packing up. Today at about 1:30pm, we fly to Brisbane. The flight is about 3 hours 45 minutes and there is a time change. We get there about 5:45m. We are staying out by the airport as we need to be back there the next morning at about 7:30am. We will hope that we can just find a good, inexpensive meal nearby there tonight. We are staying at the Airport Clayfield Motel. Clay is setting up Uber to get there since when we booked breakfast and an airport shuttle were included but not now. We'll see how it goes when we get there. It is for less than 24 hours so it can't be too bad hopefully.

We had our first email from a neighbor today! She wrote to let us know that after 8 inches of rain last week that we have thigh-high weeds in our yard. She wrote that she had used a hedge clipper to mow down the parking strips by the street to spare us a fine from the city. She wondered if we had someone to do the mowing for us. Clay thanked her. We were hoping for a hard long winter and a late dry spring to handle the weed growth while we were gone. It looks like our plan ran a week too long. Clay wrote back that he'd mow it himself on Monday. Best laid plans and all. If that's the worst that goes wrong, we'll count ourselves lucky.

Our flight went off without a hitch. Security in Darwin domestic terminal was cursory. No one ever checked our ID. No one. We printed our boarding passes and luggage tags at a kiosk without a line. We checked our bags without a line. We cleared a security bag x-ray and metal detector without a line. We went straight up the escalator to sit outside our gate. We watched a plane unload there where multiple families reunited with passengers arriving. They were picking up their family members inside security at the gate. When was the last time you saw that happen at home! They served lunch and drinks in economy for a flight slightly less than 4 hours. We had pepper beef meat pies with a potato topping served with mushy peas and mushy carrot sticks. No tomato sauce on the side. We each had a mini Coke Zero with no ice. I did have my water bottle filled with ice at no charge in the airport though. Later they brought around tea and coffee and later still water and frozen Mars bars treats. We each watched movies. We both watched Red Dog: True Blue. I also watched Sing. We arrived to a comfortably cool and dry Brisbane. Clay decided on Uber vs. cab or calling to find out about the hotel shuttle. It cost around $17USD. It took longer than expected for the pickup and we had a bit of a weird encounter with the driver but arrived safe and sound and pretty quickly at the motel. The driver was right about one thing though, why do Americans choose this place. I blame Google Maps. It is not an Acton Town quality dump but it is not great. It is though inexpensive at about $115 a night including continental breakfast for booking online direct and free Internet and a $15 per couple airport shuttle. We had a number of places offering food within a 5 minute walk so it is convenient. We picked Hell Pizza. We wound up taking out since the only seating was outdoors and it was at the intersection of 2 busy roads. After we ate we walked over to check out Doughnut Time and Clay got a Cold Rock Creamery cone.

So far, so good. We can only hope the rest of the trip home is as painless. It may be more than a day or 2 before I post again. Be patient. I'll be back.

Kakadu Day 2

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We had an early start at 7:45am but not as early as the people at the Aurora at 7:15am. We had our yogurts and made hot drinks in the room. It had stopped raining overnight. Did I mention yesterday that it opened up and poured just in time for dinner last night? We were glad to have opted to eat at the Crocodile Hotel! It rained hard for at least a couple of hours. For reasons I am a bit unclear on, we had 2 small 18 passenger vans with luggage trailers this morning. I thought I understood the guide to say it was because of the dirt road we had to travel to get to this morning's nearly 2-hour, 4km walk to rock art at Nanguluwur. This was because the road to Ubirr, our originally scheduled activity, is flooded. So, our groups were divided in 2 in 2 buses and with 2 driver/guides. Ours drove us all out to the site and then asked who wanted to walk and who was opting out. Since opting out now meant sitting in mostly sun  on a hard wooden bench busy with insects of all kinds only 5 of us opted out. The 2nd bus came along maybe 20 minutes later and there were only about 7 -9 of them and we couldn't understand why there were so few and they all walked. Later when we got to our next stop at Bowali Visitors Centre we understood. Their guide had asked at the hotel and dropped the non-walkers here at a coffee shop with AC, shade, ceiling fans and restrooms and comfortable chairs and a museum for their 2 hour wait. How hard was that? Geez. So, as you might expect on the 2nd bus there were fewer walkers than non-walkers. The other improvement for that bus was that it brought them all the way to Darwin with an evidently really great guide/driver. We got moved to the back half of a half-day tour bus that was returning to Darwin in the afternoon. We stopped at Corroboree Park Tavern again, this time for lunch. We had hamburgers, chips and Coke Zero. Lunch was included. We set out again for Window on the Wetlands. We saw a lot of wallabies this afternoon. This stop was where our luggage was transferred and so were we after our visit there. We drove down to the Adelaide River afterwards for the Spectacular Jumping Crocodile Cruise. This place was very busy and backed up today as they were hosting a lot of ship's passengers and crew today from RCI's Voyager of the Seas. Good thing we had our Darwin touring out of the way! We had to drive through a buffalo farm in and out and saw a small wild crocodile out there. The last stop of the day was Fogg Dam. This was a really interesting stop.  The dam is the remnant of the Humpty Doo rice experiment. (This was all in place of this: This morning head off with your Driver Guide to explore the World Heritage Area of Ubirr, where you’ll climb up through the ancient Aboriginal rock art galleries, believed to be 20,000 years old, to the lookout for the view over the surrounding wetlands. Join the Guluyambi Cruise along the East Alligator River. An Aboriginal guide will provide an insight into their culture, including local mythology, the river’s abundant food chain, as well as bush survival skills. With special permission of the local people, you are able to go ashore in Arnhem Land. Visit Bowali Visitor Centre before returning to Darwin, where your short break concludes.) We arrived back in Darwin around 6pm and as the sun set we drove around over the next hour to all but one hotel and central depot before being dropped off ourselves, next to last couple.

We checked back into the Double Tree by Hilton Esplanade and got free cookies and wifi and a room on the HH floor. We got the room assignment before Clay offered his HH member number. Go figure. We went out on a quest for dinner. It was Friday night on Mitchell Street in Darwin and the Entertainment Centre is behind our hotel. There was a performance at 8pm and everywhere within walking distance was one packed, and 2 playing overwhelmingly loud music. We found this to a lesser extent on ANZAC Day too. Today though everything was actually open. So, we weren't able to eat until after 8pm. That is why I didn't get this typed up and posted until after breakfast today.

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Kakadu Day 1

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We were up very early. We were downstairs and checked out and our rolling duffels stored by 6am. We went to the included breakfast buffet and made some sandwiches and grabbed an apple for breakfast later. I had a yogurt and coffee in the room earlier. The bus was a bit late. There were several of us out there waiting so we didn't get too worried. Also knowing how AAT Kings drives around to a lot of hotels, we know it is easy for them to be late or early. They came around before long. We were in the middle of the pickups I guess. He took us to a central location where all the one day tour people got off our bus and moved to another while the 2 day people came over to our bus. As the sun rose and we drove out of Darwin, we had our sandwiches. On the bus ride, I was looking down the aisle out the front window and saw a dingo and a wallaby.

We are on AAT Kings 2 Day  Kakadu & East Alligator River (DK40S).  We had a 15 minute comfort stop in the morning at Corroboree Park. We got to Kakadu in the late morning. Our first stop was the Jabiru Airport for the 3 people who paid an extra $250pp for optional fixed flight seeing. They all liked it and saw 2 waterfalls. Our next stop was a 20 minute visit to Warradjan Cultural Center. It was well done but little more than a toilet stop for us. Our last stop before lunch was a cruise on Yellow Water Billabong. This was the highlight of the day even though the weather finally broke from overcast to rain. We saw a lot of birds including white corellas, jabirus, whistling kites, magpie geese, and a green bee eater. We probably saw more species than that but it is what I can remember. Jabiru is a stork and the town where we are spending the night is named for it. In addition to birds, we saw at least 7 salt water crocodiles. We watched one sitting in a snag in a 2 river confluence catching fish flowing through and chomping them one after another. It was like a train wreck. It was disturbing but you couldn't look away.

Lunch was at Gagudju Lodge Cooinda where we had earlier met up with the flying option people and where we got transferred to smaller high-clearance 4WD truck/buses to get through water to the dry season landing. The boat driver explained that the dry had arrived early here and this morning was the first time they couldn't get through to their usual landing spot. The water was still over the roads too deep at the dry season landing to allow our bus through. We have been told that high water over another road will require a change of itinerary tomorrow as well. We couldn't clearly hear today's driver over the intercom or understand him, but it sounds like we will miss Ubirr rock art and another river cruise in Kakadu. We thought we heard him say there will be a 4km walk between 8am and 10am, something else, lunch, drive back towards Darwin and take a Jumping Croc cruise before we get back to town. I really hope that we misheard, but we are on the bus tour and we're going where they're going like or not. Lunch was a limited cold buffet with tea, coffee or water. It was food.

After lunch we drove to Nourlangie. This was the 2nd best part of the day. It stopped raining just long enough for our short-version walk. Our boat guide told us today was unseasonably cool. But it was still warm and humid to us. It is interesting to us that the Aboriginal art of this region looks like the rock art we saw. Lots of lines, but pictures of things in nature. In Uluru, there was a kind of iconography, symbols representing things, not the things themselves. In Uluru, it was true that the iconography was represented in both the rock art and contemporary art. While they use a lot of lines, they were not the straight lines seen Top End and they use a lot of dots not seen here. We worked up a serious sweat and were plagued again by the flies. They have mosquitos around here as well, which we  had not seen before today. Our tour packing advice did not mention the need to bring bug repellant. We used my last 2 DEET wipes today and I left the little spray bottle of DEET in my big bag back in Darwin. We'll hope we don't need repellent tomorrow. UPDATE: I am back to update this section. It turns out our guide yesterday did not give full disclosure and a different guide today told us the whole story on Kakadu's rock art. It seems that almost all the rock art you can view in Kakadu is modern art. The work we saw yesterday was almost all done by Barramundi Charlie who died in 1965. I think this explains a lot about the contemporary look of it and the similarity with the art being produced and sold there today.

After that we reloaded the bus and drove directly to our hotel first. We are at the Mercure Crocodile Hotel. This place is a trip. It is built to look like a giant crocodile. After dark, the yellow eyes glow red. It is a nice place in the middle of nowhere. The other hotel is a half hour away, the Aurora. There is not much here in this little town built to support the Ranger Uranium Mine. We had hoped to avoid the hotel restaurant and walked to the Supermarket next door and bought breakfast for tomorrow. But we stopped at another rotisserie chicken. I think mainly because we couldn't finish the half chicken we bought yesterday and they only had whole chickens here. We walked back to put our purchases in the fridge. We checked a map and online for the sports club that the driver recommended if we didn't want the hotel restaurant or we couldn't get a reservation. While we were doing that it started pouring rain. I read Clay the hotel directory's list of room service menu items and prices that you could go pick up from the restaurant without a reservation. He decided to make a reservation. We ate there at 6pm. It was no more expensive than Darwin or Adelaide. Clay had fish & chips and I had a steak. It was fine. It was expensive just not any more so than some other places we've been.

Clay says he will get photos up and linked tomorrow night. Sorry. You'll have to check back. Tomorrow night in Darwin is the end of our The Territory Complete tour through Great Southern Rail. The next day we start our long string of flights to get back home. We will fly from Darwin to Brisbane the day after tomorrow. The next day we'll fly to LAX where we'll arrive before we've left! The next day we'll tour the Getty Mansion and that evening take the final flight back to RDU. We should be home late on May 1. It will be good to be home!

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Darwin Day 2

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Since we spent a day in Darwin while cruising, this is our 2nd day here. We slept in this morning as we had no specific plans for the day. It had cooled to about 75F in the room overnight and the fan helped. The AC fan blows continuously been without cooling. Fingers crossed that will get fixed today while we find something to do out. In other bad news, I had a very cold shower this morning. I thought maybe it just takes a long time for hot water to get to the 5th floor but 15 minutes later both taps were still cold. I asked Clay if he had a cold shower last night assuming that since we were so hot and sweaty that he did and he said no, he had warm water. Geez. If they get the AC fixed and I have to take another cold shower. Grrr. We have never had good luck with any Hilton brand hotel anywhere. They usually have great locations but little else to recommend them. This outfit has been more polite about than most have been with Hilton problems in the past. So, there's that. BTW, this Double Tree by Hilton has a guest laundry but no self service ice machine. Go figure.

We went to what will be our only breakfast during this 2 night stay since they open at 6am and we have to be outside boarding a bus tomorrow at 6:15am. They had a pancake dispensing machine and a waffle iron but maple flavored syrup. That won't do. They did have American style bacon on the plus side. They had a nice self service cappuccino machine. During breakfast, I suggested that we take the Big Red Darwin Explorer HOHO Bus. I wanted to go to the free Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. We did that. The 2nd stop on the route was convenient to our hotel. Per the recommendation of the driver, we rode the entire route once first without getting off. It was a good day for it. It was hot and humid but overcast and there was a nice breeze riding in the open air upper deck. There were no cruise ships in town today so most of the tourists we saw today came in on the Ghan yesterday. That meant lots of empty seats and we got to ride a couple of circuits in the front row or the back row as suited us. We saw a selfdriving bus on the Stokes Hill Wharf. That was fascinating and I'm sorry we didn't get off when we saw it. We did get to make one of the 90-minute afternoon circuits and got to see the wallabies in the East Point Reserve. We also used the HOHO bus to return to Clay's beloved Oyster Bar. It was even better than he remembered it, I think. He had a pint of Little Creatures beer and a dozen oysters. I had a glass of Riesling and a garlic cheese flatbread. It was all very good and served with a tall bottle of cold water. We finished riding on the next to the last circuit, so before 4pm. We walked away from our hotel to scout a dinner place. I wasn't impressed with anything. We ate on Mitchell Street last night and today could see and hear that it is a bar strip. Last night being ANZAC Day we could see on the bus ride through town that a lot of eating places were closed and the bars were packed. So we didn't have much choice with being too hot and tired to go far. We ate in a noisy bar on Mitchell Street. I wasn't eager to repeat the experience. Clay had it in his mind to go to Cole's and get me a carton of yogurt to be sure I had coffee and breakfast in the room before we have to leave at 6am tomorrow. We got in there and immediately walked upon a display of hot rotisserie chickens ready for takeout. There was a $5 half chicken and we agreed we'd like to eat that rather than in another bar.  We got the yogurt for tomorrow, and a bag of Nacho Doritos as a side dish. It was good. Plus we found a note from the AC tech telling us he had fixed our thermostat and it should be cooling. According to the thermometer dangling on my backpack it was 75F this afternoon. In other good news, I had hot water for a shower this evening. Things are looking up.

I will post this now. Remember that the next 2 days and a night are in Kakadu National Park so we are unlikely to have either Internet or a phone signal again. Just sayin'. Don't worry. I'll be back and post when I can. We are leaving our rolling duffel bags stored here while we're gone since we'll be back for one more night as the last item on our GSR The Territory Complete Itinerary. So, while the room doesn't come with complimentary Internet Clay has had phone data service here and hopefully still will when we return. Otherwise, I'll update the blog when I can. Good night.

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The Ghan - Part 2

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This has been the smoothest section of the train trip, but the least interesting as far as views. It was interesting that we left Alice Springs as the sun set on the outback and woke up in what looked to us basically like rainforest.

We did sleep fairly well last night. There were some unexplained stops which woke us since there had been no announcements to explain that there would be stops. We were told we could go to breakfast anytime between 6:30am and 8:30am. We were expected to stop in Katherine at 9am and leave the train for our off train excursions. We had been asked to pick an included or optional cost one when we checked in. Our choices were both Nitmiluk Gorge cruises. One went through 2 gorges with a change of boat included. The other only cruised the first gorge and got out to hear stories about rock art to be walked up to. We were told 3 times that both gorge cruise excursions would see the rock art, but only one would spend time talking about it. We didn’t need that and stayed with the recommended 2 gorge cruise. The walk was variously listed or described at 300 meters, 500 meters or 700 meters. It was probably closer to 1000 meters walked each direction coming and going in bright sun and 93F. It was precarious footing over a rock river bed and/or sand. We were told we needed to be able-bodied to do this excursion and therefore asked a lot of questions of more than 1 person before committing and yet there were people with canes, crutches and wheelchairs. We did not see rock art. I asked our boat driver/guide before boarding the 2^nd boat where it was. She pointed out white chairs across the Katherine River and said you had to dock over there and climb up to it. She said you can’t dock there in the dry for the same reason we have to walk between boats. The water is too low. She said no one could see the rock art now. I have no idea what the rock art people did on their tour. No one made any announced explanations of the missing rock art from the tour description. I only know because it was important to me and I asked. Another disappointment. We left the train in Katherine at 9am and the train left again after we were all aboard at 1pm. Normally, we were told, there is a drive through tour of Katherine but since it is ANZAC day here they had the main street closed for parades and marches. We had a minute of silence in our bar car before departing. When we got back onboard and before the train started they played a song and twice read an ode and then another minute of silence. I don’t know when the USA stopped with the red poppies to honor veterans and the fallen. It is a nice touch and moving.

Lunch for us is at 2:15pm. We should arrive at Darwin station at about 5pm. We have seen the train terminal they use out at the EastArm from when Sirena docked out there so we know it will be a while more to get into Darwin and our hotel. Our shuttle to the hotel is supposed to be included and hopefully this time will be since they confirmed it when I asked at check in. We’ll see.

About 1:30pm, we saw smoke in the distance on both sides of the train. Soon we could smell it. Later we could see it. Later still the flames licked the left side of the train and I could feel the heat through the 2 panes of glass in the window next to me! Add another unexpected experience. Ride a train through an Australian bushfire.

Lunch was running late and then the manager came into the lounge and took everyone into the next 2 dining cars. No idea what was up with that. Fortunately, we wound up being served very quickly. I ate buffalo curry! You might be getting an idea that my menu options have been limited by the funkiness of the choices and you'd be right. I have gained so much weight and am just so sick of food now. I hate thinking about eating and yet it seems like that is the main thing we do.

We arrived in Berrimah Station outside Darwin on schedule. There were complimentary shuttle buses for everyone on the train. There were 6 of them. Unfortunately when we got to bus 5 which was the one going to our hotel, it was already filled and there were 12 of us left on the sidewalk. The bus drivers, I think, solved the problem. There are 2 Double Tree Hotels side by side on Esplanade. One has Esplanade in the name and one has Darwin in the name. They have different street numbers. I think the fact that instead of putting all Double Tree customers in one bus caused the problem as people at the Darwin filled up the Esplanade bus. The Darwin Double Tree bus had empty seats so he took us. He parked in the middle of the 2 and everyone walked. As the first bus driver said, it is not so bad. Unfortunately at these prices not so bad is an unacceptable level of quality. We are paying for excellent, extraordinary, exceptional like that. Which brings us to the fact that our room 512 does not have working AC. I should say not cooling AC. The fan blows but it is about 80F in here. The maintenance guy made it up after we got back from dinner and were ready for bed. He said it takes a key card but we had it in when we first arrived and took it out to go to dinner and the fan ran the same the whole time and the controls never changed. They offered to move us but still on the top floor and that seems to be part of the heat problem. We didn't want to repack if it is the same. They offered us a fan and for AC technicians to come tomorrow and fix it or else they'll move us for the 2nd night. Oh, and we evidently do not have included Internet. We do have included breakfast but it starts at 6am and our 2nd morning pickup to Kakadu is 6:15am. We'd have rather had the Internet. Right now Clay's data sim is still working, so that is what we are using. 

We have no plans  for tomorrow other than to try to stay cool. It is still hot and humid here in tropical Darwin.  

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Alice Springs Day 3

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We had a chance to sleep in and we were still up around 6:30am. I slept back in the bed under the AC because I was still just about heat stroked out from the Palm Valley race walk in 93F. I slept fine this time. I suppose I was just really tired. We went to breakfast then packed up and checked out before 10am. We stored our luggage with the hotel and got from them a keycard that would give us access to the pool area and changing rooms/toilets/showers of the gym. We were scheduled for the 10am Lasseters transfer to town and the 2pm return. The $15AUD per couple shuttle bus to The Ghan picks up at 4pm. The Ghan has last bag check at 5pm. All aboard is after that and The Ghan departs at 6:115pm.

We didn’t have a problem spending 4 hours in downtown Alice Springs. It was another beautiful sunny day. The sun was very hot but there was a nice breeze everywhere and it is a dry heat. We visited some more art galleries. We went to the Royal Flying Doctors museum. That was interesting as we’d already heard a lot about it from our bus driver in Broken Hill on the first train segment. Did you know that Qantas is an acronym? Queensland and Northern Territory Aviation Service. We didn’t even eat lunch in town. Clay ate an ice cream and we sat over a Coke Zero. We ate lunch by the pool. We shared a ham & cheese toastie and some shoestring fries with aioli and another Coke Zero. If we’d known that we wouldn’t have dinner tonight until 8:15pm, we might have had a bigger lunch. I waded in the kids pool since it was cold water. We watched a helicopter doing Ghan tours for through passengers take off and land next door several times. We studied a big brown walking stick insect that fell asleep near our table. It startled awake a couple times as the helicopter came and went.

We are on The Ghan now and it has left Alice Springs behind. It is a nice little town of about 28K. About 30 to 40 percent of the population is Aboriginal. They say over 1000 Americans live and work here at Pine Gap, a joint Australian-CIA operation outside of town. Alice Springs is beautifully situated surrounded by the McDonnell Ranges. We watched our last outback sunset and are glad we came even after hell week with AAT Kings. Clay says we might have enjoyed it more if the weather had been better and we were 20 or 30 years younger. I disagree that I would have enjoyed it then either. Clay says yeah, but it wouldn’t have nearly killed you then. Maybe.

We are in carriage S room 3 on the Ghan. It is further back from the front even though a higher letter this time. It must be a super long train this time. We could see the automobile cars in the distance but couldn’t see the engines. They must have more than the alphabet of carriages this time. This is our first time in a wood panel appearing car. I had envied those when we were in Formica the last 2 times. Not anymore. There is a storage cubby under the mirror in the Formica cars that is missing in the wood one. This is our 3^rd train assignment. The 1^st was an even number 6 and we faced backwards to travel. Not good. The last one was 5 and this one is 3. The odd numbers have been forward facing and as far as we know that is always true, but it may not be depending on how they put the trains together. In any event, odd numbers are better because in even numbers both the little table and the bed ladder block the closet door and luggage storage area. I don’t think you can reserve or request a specific cabin or room, but it would be worth asking for an odd number room.

I will stop here as Clay has had his shower in anticipation of dinner and bedtime. I won’t be able to post this for a couple of days but will get it online ASAP. We were assigned dinner at 8:15pm. They’ll be serving appetizers about Clay’s bedtime so he is getting ready for it before dinner. There have been no announcements of departure or anything else. We’d learn tomorrow morning that the train’s PA system is broken. But for now, we are literally in the dark. It will be repaired tomorrow afternoon.

Dinner included a crocodile sausage. Clay had it and said it tasted like spiced white meat. I ate the vegetarian.

The track here north of Alice Springs is much smoother than anything else. You’d expect that since this portion from Alice Springs to Darwin only opened in 2004. We expect to sleep well tonight.

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Alice Springs Day 2

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We had a relatively early start this morning. My switching beds last night didn't help anyone. Clay set an alarm for 5am and it went off at midnight. He set a different alarm after that but neither of us slept well. I was up around 4:30am calling it quits and we just got up. We went to breakfast at 6am. Our tour pickup today was at 6:55am. The all day (10.5 hours advertised but it was closer to 12 hours) tour was AAT Kings Palm Valley Safari by 4WD (A5). It was a very hard day. We did not enjoy it at all. If someone had told me I could see the Palm Valley in 15 minutes by helicopter instead, I'd have done it. It has been instead slow, prolonged torture. It was a cloudless hot day today finally. The weather we'd expected here was finally here and we suffered for it. I will grant that the scenery was spectacular but we'd never have booked this ourselves. Again it was included in GSR's The Territory Complete. Our first stop of the day was the art studio of Kathleen Buzzacott. We spent about 15 minutes there. We also visited an old Lutheran Mission area called Hermannsburg. It was interesting. We stopped there for a comfort stop and a scones and cream with tea or coffee. The guide also picked up our picnic lunch there for later in the afternoon. We returned their coolers and had another comfort stop on the way back to Alice Springs. We had a hard walk after a hard ride in Palm Valley. It was 22km off road to get there and it took 3 hours. You probably can't imagine. I couldn't. The guide took us on the valley floor as he didn't think we could handle the advertised rim walk. He was right. After the picnic he led a second shorter walk. I didn't go along with a handful of others. There were 24 people in our giant bus/truck ATV. It was nearly a full load. The best part of the day was learning about and seeing our first brumby. We saw several brumbies today, most them pretty close to the bus and one of the last was a mother with a youngster. They were large and beautiful, not at all like the Outer Banks wild horses so it was a bit of a surprise. Plus we hadn't heard of them before today.

We are beyond tired, exhausted. Tomorrow we have to check out by 10am to catch our Lassters transfer into town. They will hold our luggage for the day. We will try to stay in town until the 2pm return transfer. If it keeps getting hotter then it will be harder than it was yesterday. The transfer to the Ghan tomorrow is at 4pm. It costs $15 again. The Ghan departs at 6:15pm.

We have no Internet on the Ghan. So no Internet until after 6pm the day after tomorrow. I'll try to post as soon as I can. The 2 days following that are at another National Park, so don't be surprised if I can't post then either. We'll be back in Darwin for 2 nights so I should be able to post regularly. Then there will be air travel to make the long journey home. What I am saying is the end is nigh and posts are going to be sporadic here at the end. Don't panic.

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Alice Springs Day 1

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This was originally a GSR itinerary day off here in Alice Springs. I had a plan though. Clay didn't like it. Since we first saw an optional camel ride on our GSR itinerary I have wanted to do it and Clay has said he won't. He wouldn't ride the elephant in Bali bareback either and I am so glad I did it. I didn't want to miss this. When we saw the $9 camel rides in a paddock, I didn't want to do that either. I knew there were hour long rides in Alice Springs so when we were here before I found out the name and found the website for Pyndan Camel Tracks and I told Clay I was going on our day off. He looked at the website and agreed to go. We booked it the first or second day we were in Sails in the Desert. It was definitely finalized after we had checked out because I went online waiting in the lobby so I could print our tickets when I found another email letting us know they couldn't take us at 2pm. We agreed to be moved to the sunset ride just before we lost Internet until last night when we returned to Alice Springs. That meant we still had all day free here. So, we tried to sleep in. This room must be a little differently configured that the Block 2 room we had earlier. The AC blows right on my bed and I can't sleep that cold. Tonight we'll switch or I'll sleep on my side of Clay's bed to get away from the vent flow. We went to breakfast around 8:30. We started a final load of laundry at $6 to wash & dry about then. It was finished about 9:30am. We scheduled a free transfer from Lasseters to town at 10am with a return at 2pm. That was just about too long. We were trying to leave things to do on Monday after checkout and before reboarding The Ghan. Also, it was a cloudless day about 90F. So although it was a dry heat with a nice breeze all day, it was hot in the sun. There was a lot of sun, but then we have to have something to complain about. We ate meat pies for lunch at Wicked Kneads. The pies were good but we didn't like the caramel slice. It tasted like it had coconut in the crust. We bought a lot of groceries so we wouldn't have to eat in the restaurant here again for dinner.
Clay got a sandwich for tonight, a ramen for tomorrow night, a couple of Coke Zeros and a couple of beers and some candy and Oreos. I got 2 ramens, and 2 yogurts. We do have the use of a small fridge. Lasseters also has a self service ice machine in the laundry room and an ice bucket in every closet.

We had a 4:30pm pickup scheduled with Pyndan Camel. They were late because an early pickup couple was a no show and the driver/guide waited for them. Then when she came to get us she found the road closed for a 1 mile charity run. We thought that since the run started at 3pm that it would be over before 4pm. No, they had a small carnival set up beside the casino and in front of the convention center. So, our late arrival held up the other 6 people but as it delayed us it also allowed us to really see the sunset. It was a good one, with camels. It was scary when the camel first stood up but then I was fine. I was in front of the hump of our dromedary and Clay was behind the hump. I don't know if his ride was rougher back there or it was a height thing but he was holding on tight the whole time. Also one of his stirrups was twisted for half the ride. He said the end of the ride was better and he could let go sometimes. It was a great afternoon for it. There was a cool breeze and the sun was not blazing on us anymore. Our camel was Saleh. Clay admitted later that it was more fun than he'd expected and was glad he went. Now though he is literally saddle-sore. He said he felt something hard on his butt as we rode and thought it was the saddle. When we were walking back to the room, he said no it was a hard candy in his back pocket. He says he thinks he is about over his 2nd cold of the trip, but he is still sucking a lot of candies for the coughing. No, it wasn't a candy, it was a balled up Kleenex. He actually drew blood from where he rode the camel on that lump of Kleenex. It's always something. I think this catches us up. Tomorrow we have another early morning and a long hard day. I don't know if I'll be able to pack for the Ghan and get notes typed up and posted tomorrow night. So, I may get behind again. Keep in mind that Monday we board The Ghan so no Internet again until Tuesday night. Our tour tomorrow is again with AAT Kings and is Palm Valley Safari by 4WD (A5).

If I don't post for a couple of days, don't worry. Either we're too busy or no Internet or both.

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Kings Canyon

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There is no free Internet here and no cell signal. So I am sorry this post is delayed. We did have an unexpected included hot breakfast though.

We went to bed last night a bit hopeful as it wasn’t raining here and we couldn’t even hear thunder but that may have been due to the super loud music. We were hopeful even though unhappy about spending the morning apart and not having breakfast together. Clay needed to eat at 6am and I thought I needed to sleep. It was not to be. The weird glass-walled giant bathtub next to my bed had a sodium vapor spotlight over the window that was turned on all night. There were a pair of louver doors to close off the tub room but they didn’t fit and so wouldn’t close. Even closed they wouldn’t block light. So every hour or so I startled awake thinking the yellow orange glow was early sunlight and that Clay had overslept and possibly me too. I am exhausted now. Clay got up and packed and left at about 5:55am to walk to the restaurant. He was immediately back knocking. (We were given only 1 key and it also holds the power key that lets the electricity be used in the room. Since we are splitting up for the hikes it is a bit more inconvenient than usual.) He said it was raining and he wasn’t going. I told him that he had to at least go down to the meeting place and let them know so they wouldn’t wait around to see if he showed up. He agreed and was mad. He has not been as upset about this AAT Kings segment as I have. I consider it poorly planned with too much coach time and too many sunrises and sunsets causing it. Clay has argued that if it hadn’t been raining the whole time that we wouldn’t have minded. I see his point and I don’t blame anyone for the weather but I don’t agree. One sunset and one sunrise would have sufficed for me. One view of the waterfalls on Uluru would have sufficed. Knowing what I know and having been here, I would not have scheduled the itinerary this way. Today Clay was questioning a strenuous hike up a canyon rim in the rain the way I questioned wine and nibbles outside in a thunderstorm, as unsafe. He asked why they would continue and I answered for the same reason they’ve all given that the rain event has lasted unusually long in a historical context and every day they think this must be the last day of rain for at least 7 years. But it hasn’t been. He didn’t come back after putting on his waterproof jacket. It is too hot to wear waterproof outerwear even though his is breathable. It only got down to about 75F overnight. It should be close to 90F before we leave. I won’t wear my jacket. It is lined and while it breathes, it is too warm. I’ll just have to get wet.

As far as I can tell today is Y28 from AAT Kings. I suspect the whole overnight package was something like this. Otherwise all the bus rides are like this.

So, Clay went off to breakfast in the dark in the rain. By the time the last of the stragglers had arrived at the bus they were fifteen minutes late leaving and it was light and the rain had stopped. Clay said he thought he was going to die climbing the 850 some uneven rock stairs up to the canyon rim. He said the whole 3 hours was up and down with very little level. He declined to climb down to and back up from the “Garden of Eden”. He waited up top and rested for the opposite side of the canyon rim and descent. I don’t think he thought it was a life risking view. I went to breakfast after 7am and it was not raining at all. Several people in my group of 5 easy hikers this morning said they had seen the Kings Canyon Resorts’ resident dingos either last night or this morning from the restaurant windows, but neither Clay nor I saw them. Bummer. So, our guide walked us through the Kings Canyon valley floor/creek bed walk. We walked just past ½ way maybe as far as ¾ of the way when we came to a big permanent steel wall with permanent signage on it. It had photos of the Garden of Eden at the end of the trail which is what we were told we were going to walk to as recently as yesterday afternoon. It had photos of the rock slide that occurred in May 2016 that closed the trail. The guide pointed out the photo of a cycad that he’d yesterday promised we’d see if we hiked. To be clear he did not promise we’d see a photo of a cycad on a blocked off trail. He said we’d see the cycads if we went to Kakadu. (That is probably a 1000 miles away and while we’re going, probably the others aren’t.) Per the woman who joined us after our guide left, the ranger we’d seen her talking to when we set out told her the permanent wall and signage went up in September 2016. She couldn’t believe that she’d walked up to hear him telling us when we reached the fence. When we came here to see the lay of the land and commit to one trail or the other, 100 feet further yesterday and Clay would have been able to actually see those rock stairs and he wouldn’t have gone. The other thing is that the guide told us what he’d seen on the creek bed walk 2 days ago, and didn’t mention that the trail was closed to the Garden of Eden. This wasn’t just an omission, it was a lie.  AAT Kings knew when they sold this to us through GSR last fall that the trail was closed. The reason they aren’t disclosing, I assume, is because sales would suffer if they were completely honest in the advertising. Certainly neither of us would have hiked at all which would have defeated the purpose of driving hundreds of km there and back. We all raced back to shower and change and pack as instructed. I am not sure what the point was since an hour later we all took another hike in the blazing sun. We had been spoiled by the inclement weather. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and hardly a spot of shade. We stopped at Kathleen Springs. It was at least a 1.6-mile roundtrip hike and we had 45 minutes though the signage said to allow at least an hour. We are all still at least 15 minutes behind schedule due to the late couple from breakfast before 6:30am. Clay balked about 1/3 of the way downhill knowing he’d have to climb back up. He gave me his camera as I was still mad about neither of us seeing the last waterhole at a canyon’s end.  I made it in time to hear the guide tell the group it was time to race back. I told him he’d just wind up waiting for me then. I took a few photos but I didn’t sit down to breathe as I’d have liked.

We stopped at Kings Creek Station for about 40 minutes for lunch as we are still trying to make up that 15 minutes. I had a ham & cheese toastie and Clay had a camel burger. He said it tasted like beef. We stopped at Angus Downs again where the 3 buses met around 3pm to exchange passengers and luggage. We gained over 30 people and went from 17 on the bus to 49. Our last stop was Erldunda for a comfort stop and place to buy drinks and snacks. We saw a most spectacular sunset from the far side of the speeding bus. As our driver pointed out, first sunset in 3 days. Indeed. We got to the Lasseters Crowne Plaza in Alice Springs about 7:30pm. We had some problems on check in as they said GSR had reserved 2 rooms for us for 3 nights. One reservation was made in 2016 and the other in 2017. We booked The Territory Complete package in 2016 and had a booking number. In 2017, GSR started sending us new travel documents with a different booking number on it. When we called to ask, they said it was a new booking system and to just ignore the old booking number. I guess somebody dropped the ball around that time on this one. She said she had sent a query on it. She said she put us in the 2016 reservation’s room. Clay refused to accept the 2017 reservation’s room. I don’t know who’s paying for that one but it better not be us!

I was so exhausted that after we found our room all the way at the end of block 4 with a view of the blank side wall of the restaurant and went back to reception to retrieve our left luggage that I just wanted to fall into bed. Clay insisted we go back to The Juicy Rump to share a chicken parm schnitzel. It was so big last time that I only ate half. Sharing it for $26 for 2 meals was a better idea. Clay cut it in half and kept the big plate with the fries. Since you set your own table and fetch your own orders, you can pretty much do what you want. No wonder no tipping. So Clay took less than half since he had a sandwich in his bag that he hadn't eaten. (He never did eat it.) I had eaten about 8 bites of my share when I got a bite that wasn't right. I spit it out and it looked like chewed up raw chicken. I scraped cheese, breading and sauce and sure enough raw chicken breast. I couldn't eat anymore. Clay was upset because I didn't get much to eat. I was worried about food poisoning from what I swallowed before I spit it out. The girl who took his money apologized and said she'd tell the chef. She offered to refund his money but he wouldn't take it back. I don't know why. I would have.

Sorry. I will get all caught up with typing and posting tomorrow afternoon for sure.

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To Kings Canyon

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We woke to blue skies, partly cloudy with no rain for the first time since getting to Uluru. We missed sunrise again! We had slept past it today for once. We had eaten the last of our groceries last night. We packed up and checked out and stored our luggage for the 12:30pm bus pickup. We walked over to the Town Centre for breakfast. Things were not completely recovered from last night’s torrential rains. You could see that people were out and may have been for hours cleaning up, mopping, shoveling, pumping. We shopped while we were there. Since we’ll be in a bus during lunchtime, we bought things we could take to eat on the bus this afternoon. In the IGA we learned they had been flooded last night. They were open though and cleaning up and restocking and had all the shelves on risers off the floor. The guy who took our luggage said his bathroom had flooded. We were glad last night to be on the 3^rd floor after walking through ankle deep water that was coming in first floors. We visited the AAT Kings counter to ask about the cancellation letter. We wanted to know the amount of money they were refunding so we’d know what to talk to GSR about. She said that it was $144AUD pp and had already been processed to the agents. When we got back to the hotel to await our bus Clay called GSR and they checked our record to find there was a note about needing to issue a refund to us. I think the answer was if you haven’t gotten a refund on your payment card in a month call back.

Our tour today is AAT Kings but I’m not sure how it is broken out. The whole thing is called 4 day Kata Tjuta, Uluru & Kings Canyon (AK48S). It has been broken out into a lot of segments that I’ve been linking to here in the blog but today there are no tour codes on the itinerary. So I don’t have any idea what we’re paying for this night and 2 days, but I am sure it is too much. We’d never have come of our own volition. We got our first really awful driver/guide today. He is rude and confrontational. It was a long ride. We keep him tomorrow too. We learned that a couple who has been with us since Adelaide was also on Sirena for 34 days with us. I don’t remember seeing them then but there you go, it was a lot of people. Our first stop was for 20 minutes at Curtin Springs. Second stop was a literal crossroads. It was called the Angus Downs stop where we exchanged some passengers who were going to Alice Springs for those going to Kings Canyon. I think that will happen to us tomorrow. We saw some camels today but they were being farmed. Our driver told us that because of the past 18 months of rain that there is so much water and the plants are so lush all over that the animals don’t stay near the roads for moisture and green things anymore. I guess that explains it.

We are here to visit Watarrka National Park. We are overnighting at Kings Canyon Wilderness Lodge which appears as a tiny wide spot at perhaps the end of this road. It reminds us of the National Park Lodge areas of the American West as does the landscape, particularly of southern  Utah.  Our arrival consists of viewing sunset tonight on Carmichaels Crag with a hundred other people packed on a little deck. First sunset in days though so happy for that. We saw lightning off towards Uluru in the distance so it looks like they were getting the follow up storm that was predicted. Oh well. The other part of our visit here is to hike tomorrow morning. Light rain is predicted. I only hope it runs off the flies. The driver took us to the trail head this afternoon to get commitments from each of us as to the hike we’d take. I’d rather take none, but committed to the 1 hour level walk with the driver. Clay committed to the one that brought us here which is 6km and 3 hours called a rim climb. The 3 hour climb leaves at 6:30am. We get breakfast here that starts at 6am. My 1 hour walk leaves at 8:30am. We all come back to the hotel at 10am to have an hour or so to shower, change, pack and check out before reloading the bus for Alice Springs. I am sorry to report there is no free Internet here and no cell signal so I can’t post this until tomorrow. Sorry I didn’t warn you yesterday but I didn’t find out until we got here and it was too late to post a warning.

We walked down the street about a half mile to a BBQ & Bar and had 2 $30 burgers. Each came with a quarter of a baked potato and a salad bar. It was OK but there was loud music that was overwhelming. We saw distant lightning, a lot of stars and even the Milky Way on the dark walk back. I had a flashlight and used it in the dark spots. When we got back to our block of rooms I was shining the light along the wall and there were dozens of light slimy looking snaky lizards about 4 inches long. When the light hit them, they would wiggle crawl away. At first I was inadvertently driving them along towards our door. Then I had to stand on the sidewalk and use the light to drive them off from our stoop one at a time. This should give me nightmares. These were not the dry scaly looking chameleons of SW Florida. I don’t know what these were!

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Yulara Day 2

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We were up at 4am this morning to get fed, showered,, clothed and packed up for our morning excursion. It was AAT Kings Y14 Uluru Sunrise & Kata Tjuta. It was absolutely pouring rain and 65F at 4:45am. I decided to go with an umbrella today and since the high is predicted to be about 86F today to leave the jacket and rain hat behind. So today we heard from our guide and driver that the 8 year "rain event" here has lasted about 18 months. They claimed it has rained almost every day over the last 18 months. Our last 2 guides had said since Boxing Day but maybe they hadn't been here as long. I guess at some point an actual sunrise or sunset may be visible here again and they don't want to miss it. There were 17 people on the bus this morning and somehow Clay & I managed to get a front row seat. I got to see 2 toads on the road I'd have otherwise missed. There was no sunrise and Uluru didn't much change color. Our driver convinced everyone to be back on the bus at 7:10am after a 7:03am sunrise, so we could go drive around Uluru to see the waterfalls. We were told several times now how special this is as only 2% of visitors see Uluru or Kata Tjuta wet or in the rain. But not evidently over the past year. They need to recompute their averages. The other statistic they keep quoting that is sticking in my craw is that only 17% of visitors see or go to Kata Tjuta. We went last night and this morning. So we'll have visited 2 times in less than 24 hours! Keep in mind that it is a 45 minute drive each way, every time! This is a set tour from AAT Kings purchased through Great Southern Rail as The Territory Complete package. This couple of days just seems like poor planning to me and the rain is not helping anything. So we drove off into a dark pouring rain and an hour later with our umbrellas in 1 hand and the cookies they offered us in the other we waited for a sunrise that was a non-event. We did not carry the hot drinks offered because not enough hands. The paths and viewing areas were not well explained and in the dark we missed the top platform which should have been the only place they directed us to go but it wasn't. We didn't find it until it was light. It didn't matter all that much since the views weren't good, but it would have saved us probably a half mile slogging through red mud. Oh well.

The drive around Uluru base was a bonus. It was nice to see the waterfalls and be out of the rain. The reason you've never seen the other side is because photography is forbidden. Both these sites are sacred to the Aboriginals. We were killing time since we had cut short the sunrise viewing of Uluru. Our next stop was Kata Tjuta to walk the Walpa Gorge. This is where we had seen the emergency evacuation last night. Now we know why. First of all, why of all the things guides have told us did no one say Walpa means wind. The Walpa Gorge is like a constant wind tunnel. No one said until we read it on a sign there. Too late to use that information to bring a jacket. I wore Clay's but it was pointless. The wind made any clothing like a wind sail. The walking surface is all uneven sedimentary rubble and slick rocks. It was like walking uphill on a broken mirror covered with ice in a wind tunnel. Clay walked further than me but not by much. He said he stopped and turned back as he neared the narrow gap of the gorge as the wind had nearly knocked him down. He told me if I had gone wearing his jacket that I'd have taken off like a kite if it moved him in just a t-shirt. I had no hope of making it. I know it is a special place, but once and from a distance would have been enough for me. The served cookies and nuts and granola bars before we set off. We had an hour. We were told the trail was 1.5 km in each direction. I don't know if anyone on the bus saw inside or past the narrow gap. I don't think so but no one got hurt either. What bothers me most is that they have comments in the itinerary about fitness levels and degree of difficulty about some of the walks and hikes but there was nothing to indicate today would be anything other than an even level stroll which it was certainly not. It would have been tricky even if it were dry.

We got back around 11am. We came back to the room to drop some things before looking for lunch. Our room had not been serviced. We went back out and spoke to a few of the cleaners as we left.. We went to Town Centre and had lunch. Clay had a Balfour's pepper beef pie and I had a ham & cheese toastie. We did some souvenir shopping. We rode the Ayers Rock Resort Shuttle around to one of the other hotels that has an art gallery. We rode a half hour later the rest of the way round the loop to get back. We got back around 1pm and our room has still not been serviced. Since we put out the privacy sign until our next pickup at 2:30pm I suspect it will not get service during our stay.

The rest of the day we are on Y17 Uluru Base & Sunset & Sunset Y17 BBQ Dinner. It is clear now and the sun has been out since at least 11am but thunderstorms were predicted for this evening. Right now the hotel has their evening slate still scheduled so we're hoping there's a good chance it will stay clear. Uluru looked better in the sun from a distance anyway. We'll see in a bit. I'll try to type up the rest tonight when we get back but it may be tomorrow morning if it is very late. We leave here at 12:30pm tomorrow and check out is 10am so we have a chance to sleep in. We'll see.

We are back, early, soaked to the skin and hungry. We learned shortly after our full bus departed its last hotel pickup that AAT Kings had canceled the BBQ dinner portion of our tour. It was because it wasn't safe to have it outdoors in a thunderstorm and the Cultural Center venue where they had planned to move indoors had lost electricity. They said that letters had been delivered to each of our hotels for delivery to our room. We were in our room and nothing was delivered before the tour left. We got back to find it tucked in our door. Unfortunately, it is not the refund we were promised but a letter saying they canceled and would refund a portion of our tour cost through our agent and to contact them. We'll try contacting Great Southern Rail but don't have high hopes. So our full bus set off with a driver and a guide. Our first stop was the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Center where we had a bit less than an hour. They had power everywhere except the café and gift shop. We could have spent more time here. When we walked back out we could tell that a storm was coming. And it did. We did a first circuit around Uluru on our side in a light rain. We stopped for the Kuniya Walk after as it started to really rain. The walk ended for most of us prematurely when it started to lightning and thunder. We went ahead with the other circuit and photo stop as people were already wet and now there were waterfalls. We were all now 2%ers. I don't know what they call people who see waterfalls on Uluru on 2 different visits on the same day. As the storm kicked into high gear we headed off to a parking lot with a small thatched roof shelter for wine & nibbles. There was no sunset and Uluru was barely visible 5km away. When we got off the bus the water in the parking lot was over our ankles and it was lightning and thundering at the same time. I saw one spectacular lightning strike from the bus that either hit on or behind Uluru. I wonder what they call people who see that? Anyway, I thought this portion of the evening either needed to be canceled or substituted as AAT Kings begins every outing with a long safety first spiel. This was dangerous and foolish. About half the bus went but we came right back. There were at least 3 and maybe 4 tables set up basically in the rain since there was no real shelter and no way to even figure out whose table was whose in the dark. We immediately turned around and went back in the bus. About a half dozen were still out there committed to getting their money's worth in alcohol. The guide and driver asked those of us on the bus if we'd rather go back to Uluru to see the waterfalls really flowing and it was an overwhelming yes vs. sitting in the bus for an hour while a few people got drunk. It continued to be unsafe as the driver ran a truck off the road because it was flooded and she was speeding down the road throwing a huge wake. She finally slowed down and announced that she would not make a circuit of Uluru because she was not allowed to drive in more than 30 inches of water and it was over 2 feet deep now. She drove more sensibly and courteously after that and took us back to the last photo op stop. It was still seriously pouring and the water was shooting off Uluru in places. People were going crazy trying to take photos and videos, but the windows were streaming and outside their cameras got soaked. Back in the bus to ponder how to get dinner again since every place would be over run as with last night since all the outdoor dinner events had been canceled again. It was like deja vu but wetter. Waltzing Matilda was played and sung again. Evidently Australia's solidarity song when things go badly. For the second night, we also got Raining on the Rock. This guide also told us about the 7-9 year drought cycle followed by a rain event but that this time the rain event had been extreme and it was running long at 18 months now. It is also weird that 80km away it is not raining in Alice Springs. If this pattern shifts over there from here next week we will feel really cursed. This has in no way been the Outback we'd been led to expect. I know its weather and you take what you get, but it has been so green and such growth with so few animals to be seen. Oh well. We leave at 12:30pm tomorrow for one night in King's Canyon.

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Alice Springs to Ayers Rock

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We had an early start this morning. We got up and had breakfast at 6am. We were outside waiting for our 6:55am pickup at least 8 minutes early and it was running about 5 minutes late. We were nearly the last pickup the bus made. It was half full when it arrived. The good news is that after all our stress over the one medium sized 20kg suitcase there was no weighing and our bags were not the largest or the heaviest. We were right in the middle and there was plenty of room under the coach. We drove for about an hour to our first stop. We had a half hour at Stuarts Well Camel Farm. For $9 pp you could ride a led camel up and down a paddock to say you'd ridden a camel in the outback. It looked like what you've done at zoos or state fairs in the past. I want to have an actual safari-type experience. We have a free day in Alice Springs when we get back so we'll see. We used the restrooms, shared a giant cookie at $3.50 and walked around to see camels, an emu and feed a couple of friendly, hungry kangaroos or wallabys. Next stop was at Mount Ebenezer Road House. You could buy hot or cold food and drinks and use the restrooms. We had a half hour again. There was also an Aboriginal art gallery that we walked through. We had a 5 minute photo stop at Mt. Conner which is close in size to Uluru but not as big and since it is closer to Alice Springs is often mistaken for it. We arrived in Yulara which is the hotel village outside Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park at about 1 to 1:30pm. We had been told check in would not be until after 2pm and that we could store our bags and go out. The bad news is that it has been raining almost all day and still is. The good news is that someone from the hotel ran out to greet us and let everyone know that all their rooms were ready. We were the next to the last hotel to be dropped off. We were told that they average 5000 tourists every night here at Yulara. The thing about the rain. Our driver/guide told us Uluru is in the middle of a 7-8 year cycle rain event. She said it started with a flooding rain on Boxing Day 2016 and is continuing. She said that over history the local flora only has a chance to flower and seed and go through a 4 season cycle once every 7 to 8 years. They are expecting an explosion of burrowing toads to surface and mate over the next 24 hours or so. I honestly could have waited a week to come here.

Our AAT Kings itinerary that we got this morning warned of an early morning tomorrow and we found we have no breakfast included when we checked in to Sails in the Desert. So when we got our luggage to the room, we walked out to the "Town Centre" for some groceries. We needed a quick lunch which we did not find. There is not a lot of choice. We didn't have a lot of time before our 4:30pm tour pickup either. We went to the grocery store and bought food for now and later. We could both stand to skip a couple meals but right now as I type this up at bedtime I'm thinking it wasn't a good time to skip a couple in one day.

We had the Y8 Kata Tjuta Sunset tour this afternoon/evening. Obviously not a great night for it. The hotel actually canceled all their night tours/events for this evening. That must have overwhelmed their indoor restaurants and when our bus got back this evening and everyone poured in there they were sad to find that they could not be accomodated. I know this because I was nearly stampeded as I waited to get a bucket of ice for the room. When they all stormed off and I was still standing there, the guy patiently told me, we cannot seat you tonight. Boy was he relieved when I told him, No I just want a bucket of ice to take to my room. So, there was no sunset but we had more cheese, dip and chips which is what we ate for a late lunch too. In addition we had wine & beer. Probably not a good combination. So we drove to view Kata Tjuta up close for a 10 minute photo stop and saw part of a medical evacuation. A man who was where we'll be tomorrow morning had fallen and cut his head and was on blood thinners so was bleeding profusely and they couldn't get it stopped. Hopefully he didn't fall because everything is soaked otherwise we might fall too! I guess it is good news for the burrowing toads though. Then we drove to a sunset viewing area. I am not sure I understand how it was supposed to work. You couldn't see the western horizon there anyway because the trees were too tall. I understand that the drinks and canapes were set up under a picnic shelter instead of in the open tonight. But even where we stood in the open we couldn't see anything happen to the massive rock faces as the sun set and the sky darkened. Maybe on big full sky turning colors sunsets the rocks change color. I don't know. It rained, the skies were cloudy, it got dark, we all drank too much. The saving graces were that on our first approach to Kata Tjuta the clouds opened a crack on the left side of the bus and a giant brilliant rainbow appeared in front of the massive rock formations. For about 5 seconds, it was breathtaking and then it vanished. The second thing was that as we drove to the sunset set area that a wild camel was spotted and the driver stopped the bus so we could see it. It was the only wild mammal we saw all day from the coach and other than a couple of hours, we were in a coach from dark to dark. Sad.

Sails in the Desert is designed as an outdoor venue with hotel rooms. I mean that it is not made for rain. Other than that, our room is nice and big and attractive and comfortable. It is upstairs but there was a lift for the luggage. It is about as far as you can get from the lobby/restaurants front door though. It is fine for the 2 nights we're here. We just have to be very careful on the slick wet tiles everywhere as we got back and forth across the compound. According to the hotel information book there is a complimentary guest laundry with free use of washers, dryers and laundry detergent. They tell you this after you leave 5 kg of dirty clothes in Alice Springs to meet the weight limits! If it really rains all week, I'll be wishing I can stay in and do laundry!

We have another long dark to dark day tomorrow so I'll stop now. I hope I reported everything!


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The Ghan Day 1

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We were up around 7am on Easter Sunday morning. The Easter Bunny couldn't find us because the evil Easter Bilby rules Australia. We got up and finished off the last of our convenience store food for a quick breakfast. We double-checked our documents and found that between the original and the final copies, we had lost lunch today and our hotel transfer tomorrow. OK. Off we went to a couple of convenience stores open on Easter Day to buy a cold salami & cheese sandwich and chips for a lunch later in case. We left the Stamford Plaza a little after 10am. There is usually a cab line out front, but not today. I left Clay with the rolling duffels and when in to ask the Concierge. He picked up his phone and told me it would be a few minutes. In a few seconds, a cab pulled in dropping passengers and he waved us over and put the duffels in his trunk. We piled in back and we were off to Adelaide Parklands Terminal. It is not more than 10 or 15 minutes away. The fare was about 1/3 more than our Uber fare was. Check in today for The Ghan was to begin at 9:45am. We got there at about 10:30am and there must have been over 100 people there already. We did arrive at a slack time though and walked straight through check in with no line or waiting. That was not true 15 minutes later! GSR had live music inside and they were serving coffees, orange juice and sparkling wine. Clay ate half the sandwich with an orange juice and threw the other half away. He did it because the woman that took our check in bags told us that they would serve us lunch onboard the train. GSR really needs to work on communications. It was too noisy inside for me. We found seats at the end of the platform outside our car R. It was about 6 from the front of the train. Later they added 2 car carriers between the train cars and the engines. The other half of the train, the back half, was at platform 2. They said they had 310 passengers today. I don't remember if I said but we booked The Territory Complete package from Great Southern Rail. We booked Gold Level. I can't imagine that Platinum was worth the price difference. We have an odd number cabin this time and they are forward facing seats. I don't know if that always works out that way. But, odd numbers are still a better layout because even numbers have the closet behind a table and the ladder so you can't really get in and out of it or the luggage storage nook.

The Ghan loaded about an hour before scheduled departure. Our car hostess came out and invited us who were standing and sitting nearby to come over if we were in R. When she checked us off her list, she remembered that she had served us in the restaurant last week coming from Sydney to Adelaide! In the event, she didn't have to spend any time with us in the cabin since she knew we knew how it worked. We had lanyards but no tour cards. I asked and she said we don't get any tours. I asked about tomorrow morning and she said everyone on board gets that. OK. She pointed out that our meal assignment for lunch was at 2pm, Monday brunch was open from 10am to 1pm and the restaurant manager would be by to assign our dinner time. We sat and waited for her. She came in a timely manner and informed us that we would dine at 8pm. No discussions, no other options. We just said OK.

We departed and backtracked for a while over the same route as we had entered Adelaide. At some point we veered and the tracks were indeed smoother. The wooden sleepers had been replaced by concrete and the tracks relaid in the 1970s or 1980s I think. I don't know if it is true or a joke, but the Broken Hill bus driver said the Sydney to Adelaide tracks were all original and over 100 years old. We believed it from the ride. The Journey Map they handed out this time seemed more informative and the train commentary was played which we felt had been forgotten on the Indian Pacific segment we took. The downside was the lack of wildlife. From Sydney to Adelaide we saw dozens of kangaroos and wallabys, several emus and 2 nesting pairs of wedge tail eagles. This trip, into the outback I might add, we saw 2 live kangaroos, 5 dead ones, 2 dead cows, some horses, cows and sheep and a drone. We weren't the only ones who had been led to believe The Ghan would be the place to see kangaroos hoping in the wild. Oh well. We still have part 2, fingers crossed. Another thing learned is that every Australian I have told over the past month that I was taking The Ghan (rhymes with can) has said to me Oh the Ghan (a=ah). So I started saying that and people would correct me the other way. Today we learned the GSR calls it the Ghan (rhymes with can) as a shortened word from Afghan. Now you know.

We did have lunch late. We had it with our next door neighbors in R4. They were also the couple who we had seen waiting in vain for the 98A bus on Good Friday and later at the zoo! They are Australians. As far as we could tell, most of the passengers were Australian. Some were from New Zealand or the UK, but we were the only Americans that we overheard or heard about. It was definitely a down under experience. We survived the late dinner though it killed Clay to know he wouldn't have his bed before 8:30pm. We had an early morning on Monday! The train stopped in a spot called Marla around 3am. As far as we could tell there was no town or station there. The Ghan stops at another spot like this around 1am, but we missed that and slept through it. We woke up when we stopped at 3am and stayed stopped. I don't know why except fear of oversleeping. We needn't have worried. At about 5:45am, we got a very light tap on the door to wake us. We were already up and showered and dressed. At 6:15am, everyone had to be in their respective lounges to be led outside. There were only 2 points of exit on the train as far as I saw. There was a guy with a list who checked everyone in and out. We were meant to be outside in the dark for sunrise but there were so many people through the chokepoint that we watched the best of it through windows reflecting interior lights because we were stuck inside in the queue. I think they should have started earlier or on time. We did not leave the lounge at 6:15am as promised but at least 5 to 10 minutes later. GSR served juice and coffee and tea out there. They had 2 big bonfires going. It was not cold at all. It was barely cool. It was nice out. They walked around serving bacon & egg sliders. Bacon here is ham. They were fine, but messy. On the picnic tables, they had set up boxes of warm cinnamon rolls or pinwheels. NOT. They were vegemite! A real Aussie experience. They weren't bad, it was just an ugly surprise as I was really expecting cinnamon and hungry for it after expecting it. Our neighbors thought it was very funny and it was. We considered that breakfast since it was.

All aboard started around 7:30am. We must have all been aboard because we started off again at 7:45am. We went to the restaurant for brunch at about 11:30am. We wound up eating our final meal with our neighbors in 4 again. They had breakfast and we had lunch. In fact, Clay had kangaroo! He liked it. The food on this segment was better and better described than the previous one, we thought. The staff was not as willing I want to say on this segment. It came with attitude and complaining which was completely unprofessional and quite discourteous in my opinion. We were both appalled at some of the bar/restaurant staff and the comments they made to us or the pointedly ignoring us. I have no idea why such a difference unless they were just bent out of shape to be working a holiday.

Which brings me to an interesting phenomenon that I failed to address earlier. All weekend we have been paying a 10 to 20% surcharge for doing business on a holiday. This started at the zoo and continued through the Pancake Kitchen. Clay asked our Aussie neighbors about it and they thought it was normal and didn't know why it would bother us. It bothered Clay because he felt it was profit-taking. I told him I thought it was because of the whole living wage/no tipping culture and if employers had to pay employees more to work holiday weekends then they weren't profit taking. He thought about that and agreed it was the only thing that made sense and was acceptable. He still didn't like it though!

We got into Alice Springs about 15 minutes late. I think everyone got off the train but maybe not. They did not announce that you had to get off as they were moving and locking the train for hours as they did in Adelaide. They to got Alice Springs at about 2pm and leave again 6pm to go on to Darwin. So even the people staying on the train mostly got off to do one of the included or optional cost excursion provided by GSR here. The package we bought clearly said we had a hotel transfer here, but our train hostess assured us that no one had that. She told us to collect our checked luggage and go to the hotel shuttle bus and pay the driver $16 for the 2 of us. He actually charged us $16. He dropped at about a half dozen hotels which must have been every one in this town of 28,000 or so people. The bad news was that ours was the furthest out of town and so his last stop. We got here to the Lasseters Casino Crowne Plaza at about 4pm. Since there is nothing nearby, we ate here at The Juicy Rump. It was another all Aussie experience. It appeared to be a hotspot for locals in cars and on bikes and mostly for the bar. We sat outside since it was nicer out than in and enjoyed the spectacular scenery. It reminded us both of Springdale, Utah at Zion National Park. We don't know what we're going to do when we get back here after Uluru and have 2 or 3 more nights here. But, that is a problem for another day! On the other hand, it is a big spacious room with both a tub and a shower stall in the bathroom. It has a guest laundry ($6AUD to wash and dry 1 load.) and an ice machine with an ice bucket in the room. It is nice and we're told recently sold and renamed Crowne Plaza.

We have breakfast included here at 6am tomorrow. Clay is snoring and bed is calling me too. We get picked up by AAT Kings, who I guess GSR subcontracts for the non-train portions. We have about 6 places in our GSR The Territory Complete itinerary where we have to call AAT Kings with our booking number 24 hours in advance to find out when and where we get picked up. Not great. But it is the way it is. Now you know. So tomorrow we get picked up at 6:55am and dropped at 4:30pm at Sails in the Sand (which our itinerary says Ayers Rock Resort) so we really hope they're the same place. We have a one medium sized 20kg bag pp luggage limit on this 4 day portion. We have taken about 5-6 kg out of each of our rolling duffels and put it into 3 small bags we had to store here until we return. Here's hoping that our 16 to 17 kg rolling duffels will pass muster or at least fit in whatever shows up to get us tomorrow! Fingers crossed. Bad news is that Uluru is forecast to have a high chance of rain/thunderstorms the entire time we'll be there. Bad news since you go there for the landscapes and scenery and I don't know what to expect now. We'll see. If we have Internet, I'll try to post daily. In the event we don't, I won't post again until we return here on the 21st. Don't worry.

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Adelaide Day2

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I was up first this morning at 7am. We had no firm plans until afternoon so we were in no rush. We had breakfast in the room from our convenience store shopping and the in room coffee/tea making setup. We had plans for a second breakfast/early lunch. On the Indian Pacific train, they had chocolate waffles with ice cream. We did not have that. Last night when we were searching Google maps for something either on Rundle Mall or near Stamford Plaza that we wanted to eat AND was open, I found the Original Pancake Kitchen (We are always open!). Clay had me read the menu to him to prove that we didn't want dinner there even though they were open. Clay told me he wanted to go this morning for chocolate pancakes with ice cream. I still didn't think it was breakfast food, so we ate in the room first. We would never have found the Pancake Kitchen without a map! It was down a dead end alley all by itself. It was packed mid morning but it was Saturday. It was far too much sugar and ruined us for the day. It was however aversion therapy for our next stop of Haigh's Chocolates. Clay picked a bag of chocolate malted milk balls which they called something else. I picked a milk chocolate coated marshmallow square. We spent less than $10 I am pretty sure. Then the girl that rang us up started pulling on a glove and asked if we'd like an Easter Egg sample. Yes! Milk or dark chocolate? Milk. She gave us each a shard of egg shell big enough that it would have cost $1 or $2 out of their chocolates case. Just when we thought we couldn't eat any more chocolate we each had a big handful walking out, so of course we ate it before it melted in our hands. We walked to a Vodaphone where Clay was assured his data plan was good until August and to ignore the April 24 expiry texts. The guy told him if it expires on April 24 just come into any Vodaphone store. It is not clear it will be that simple then and why we've been in 2 stores in big cities now. Anyway, we'll see and hope for the best. Clay went in Woolworth's and bought 4 more chocolate bars! He said he needed more hard candies because of his cough continuing but that doesn't explain the chocolate bars. There were a couple of shops with local artisan goods that I wanted to visit. Clay found the Jam Factory and we walked blocks to get there to find it closed for the Easter holidays. We came back to the room to rest before our afternoon tour. I looked up the other place, Tandanya that Clay was arguing about the best way to get there and when to go and found it was also closed until Tuesday for the Easter Holiday. End of discussion and by now it should be clear where to begin the discussion, is it open. We rested for about an hour and I watched the paddle boats up and down the River Torrens. Since we weren't sure how long it would take us to find our tour meeting spot we left in plenty of time. We caught the free tram down the block and rode it 3 stops to get off at Victoria Square. We walked about 4 blocks or so to the corner of Gouger & Moonta Streets to wait under the Chinese gate for a guide in a red Feast on Foot t-shirt. We had actually booked this through Viator for about $49USD pp. It lasted from 2:30pm to 5pm. We had "dumplings" from 4 countries. It was a lot of food and a lot of walking. We had water at every stop and we stopped a lot for street art as well. There were 11 of us and 5 of us were there because someone had given them the tour as a gift! Clay wants a list so here goes. YMMV as this was Easter weekend and the guide said some of these were substitute stops. First stop was the one that killed us all. It was a full-meal sized $5 AUD Russian Piroshki from Piroshki Café inside Central Market. It was so big and heavy that we could hardly eat anything else after it! Second stop was Genki for Japanese Gyoza. Very nice. We each got a serving of 4. Third stop was Fushun for both steamed and fried Chinese dumplings. They weren't bad, but were served family style at tables of 4 with I would guess 4 dumplings per person of each kind on the platters. I only ate 2 of each and had to force myself. They were very thick dough and the fried were really crunchy and chewy after the very delicate gyoza. Our table left about half what we were served and all regretted that we couldn't take them away for later when we got hungry tonight. Last was Bakmi Lim, for an Indonesian bao bun. We could chose from 3 fillings. We both chose BBQ pork. It was not as good as the same bao buns we had in Brisbane and Auckland. We enjoyed the tour and besides it was the only tour we were able to book this Easter weekend via Viator or anywhere else we looked online months ago, so we were happy to get it. We had plans to walk to Original Coopers Ale House for Clay to have a 1/2 dozen oysters and a beer and anything for me as a light supper, but we were too stuffed! Clay wanted to walk back to the Stamford Plaza and I wanted to take the tram back. We went to catch a tram as it arrived. It was jam-packed! WTH? The areas we had been walking were a virtual ghost town after 3pm, same as yesterday on Rundle Mall. We sat down to wait for the next tram. I felt it had to be an anomaly but Clay was ready to walk it. A local came along and chatted us up and told us everyone was on their way to the Adelaide Oval for the "footie" tonight. That explained a lot. Their closest tram stop is also our closest tram stop. We did all 3 cram on the next tram, so it worked out. That ends our stay in Adelaide. We check out in the morning to go to check our luggage in at Adelaide Parklands Terminal 2.5 hours before our Ghan 12:15pm departure. We know now there is no Internet on the trains, so I won't post tomorrow for sure. Don't worry. I'll post as soon as I have typed up an entry and have Internet.


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