Aurora Alice Springs

I arrived in Alice Springs after 3 days in the desert on the Desert Venturer travelling from Cairns. It was a really fantastic trip and I was really pleased that I chose to do this rather than flying or going by the Greyhound. We were picked up at 6.30am in Cairns and taken to meet the other passengers and our bus and guide. There were 28 of us in all, a total of 10 nationalities and all ages. Our driver/guide/sometimes cook (Alan) was a true blue Aussie Outback man who had been doing the tou...

OK, this is the bit that I have been dying to tell you about. You may have heard of it as it does sometimes make the news -it is called the Henley on Todd. Created 47 years ago as humorous take of the Henley on Thames boat races in England between Cambridge and Oxford, the Henley on Todd is a boating regatta held on a dry river. They say in Alice Springs that you are only a local if you have seen the Todd River run 3 times which usually takes around 20 years so it is dry much more often that ...

The Ghan Express was first opened in 1877 from Adelaide to Alice Springs. It was laid down on the same track as where the Afghan people used to walk with their camels, hence the name. Later it was extended all the way to Darwin but first in 2004 after many problems with flooding of the railway. There are four different classes on the Ghan, Kangaroo (very expensive and you have to book a year in advance), Gold, Red sleeper, and Red day/night sleeper, the cheapestand the one we were booked in o...

21st to 22nd Nov 2007 On Wednesday, 21st, I had an early rise to catch the shuttle bus to the The Ghan train at Darwin station. The train left Darwin around 1000 and stopped off at Katherine. Got off the train and wandered around the town for 3 hours - very small place and not much to do. Got back on the Ghan and left Katherine at 6pm. Went to the diner car and had dinner then watched the last hour of Shrek 3 in the lounge car. Settled down in my seat around 10pm to try to get some sleep, unf...

We left Byron Bay hung over and sad. It was a really great town and we all had a blast. Luckily, the drive to Coolangatta was a short one; only about an hour. Coolangatta is a surf town that has arguably the best waves in Australia. I know I have said that before, but they hold the Quicksilver/Roxy Pro Surfing Competition here every year, so the waves must be decent for surfing. Let me tell you they are. Some of the waves scared the hell out of me. I would have died. However, there were some ...

Yesterday we did one more activity before leaving Ayers Rock: the Mala walk, which took us partly around the base of Uluru. This one was not nearly not as long as the Valley of The Winds walk: only about 30 minutes :o). On this walk, we were guided along by one of the rangers: "Ranger Joe" is what we've nicknamed him. He showed us the traditional tools of the aboriginal people of the Northern Territory, and explained some of the symbols used on aboriginal drawings. Needing to really, really p...

Outback Erfahrung (Red Center) Viele Backpackers die ich vorher getroffen habe meinten es waere langweilig und uninteressant. Konnte mir dies nicht wirklich vorstellen. Die vier Tagestour waren der Hammer. Einzig unangenehm waren die Fliegen. Ansonsten kann ich nur sagen atemberaubend, faszinierend, einmalig und ein Erlebnis der Spitzenklasse. Dachte nach den Touren GOR und Kangaroo Island kann nicht noch getoppt werden. Aber dies war wirklich genial. Bisher ist alles was ich hier gesehen und...

21. März: Nachdem wir in Katherine beschlossen hatten, unseren Flug nach Alice Springs um 2 Tage nach vorne zu verschieben, sollte es heute eigentlich um 12:35 Uhr losgehen, aber leider gab es ein kleines Problem mit dem Flugzeug und wir sassen ca. 4 Stunden am Flughafen herum. Passagiere aus Darwin haben sie nach ca. 2 Stunden wieder nach Hause geschickt, nur die Touristen durften die Reparaturzeit aussitzen. Dafür waren dann aber auch nur noch ca. 30 Leute im Flieger - Qantas hat einen über...