13th February 1992 Day 208

The Diary
A day of sorting things out. My cheque which was arriving by express post wouldn't be there until the afternoon. I picked up my new glasses and then we all went to the bank to close our accounts and get travellers cheques. Easier said than done. 1.5 hours later I had some travellers cheques but my account was still open and I had to bring in the cheque so they could clear it and then send it to a bank in Singapore and close my account. I had to write out a letter to authorise this and the girl helping didn't have a clue what I should write. "What shall I write?" I asked. "Write what you want to do" she said. "Which is....?" I asked. Blank look. So I made something up.

I received a valentine's card from Christy and a long letter from Rob Hay, bought a mozzie net, flip-flops and numerous other small items. I picked up the cheque at 4pm and dashed to the bank as they said they closed at 4:30pm. No they didn't, they shut at 4pm. What a bank.


I had my haircut for a bargain $7 but it still wasn't as short as I wanted it. We had a Chinese in the evening and the waitress spilled a glass of water over me. Went for our last VBs and bumped into the two Irish girls we'd shared with in Katherine. Left after the first set of a blues band with an image problem. AC/DC's new drummer, Alex Lifeson circa '73, Ken from Magnetic Island on bass and a housewife on vocals and bad dancing.


2012
Rob Hay - ex PW mate who now lives in Noo York. May see him at the end of this week, funnily enough.

12th February 1992 Day 207

The Diary
"Yo, Corey man", 
"Yeah man, what's up?",
"I saw Elvis the other day",
"Get outta here man"

Unfortunately it was true. He was on our bus to Kakadu. Fat and from Leeds, Brylcreem, big mouth, smll brain, dumb wife. I preferred him in his Vegas days. I also chose this day to wear a shirt with Middlesbrough FC on it. He noticed it and tried to make a joke about it or talk about it every few minutes or so while I generally ignored him.

I upset him by putting him right about the state of play in the Rumbelows League Cup and he looked as if he was about to cry. I also said that I was quite pleased that Oldham had beaten Leeds which he took offence to. When I bought a newspaper he insisted on searching through it for football scores even though I'd told him there wouldn't be any. He revealed how bad his reading was and then informed me, pointing to a small article, that Wakefield was near Leeds. Well I never. What was he doing in Kakadu, he should have been in Blackpool.

The day started off badly. We awoke at 6am, it was pitch black and pouring with rain outside. we checked in, nobody noticed that I'd only paid $27 instead of $57. Inadvertently got away with that one. The rain gradually subsided during the day but the sun never made an appearance. Our bus driver was quite knowledgable about the area and he told us many interesting stories about aboriginals, crocodiles and his pet dog. His standard of jokes was the usual Greyhound bus driver standard though. We saw the best aboriginal rock art yet and Beth ate some ants. We then fought off hordes of marauding flies while trying to eat dinner.

Soon, it was off on our boat trip. Elvis wasn't going but Rod Stewart was. He didn't bring Rachel Hunter with him. She must be waiting at the airport. The water had risen so much that the road was underwater and we had to get to the jetty by 4WD. The trip was quite interesting and we saw a crocodile - this time quite a big one. Everyone dashed to the side of the boat to get a picture. Our guide was quite worried as the boat listed steeply. The journey back was quite uneventful as was the evening meal at Uncle Kens.

2012
Leeds, Leeds, Leeds - Oz was/is a Leeds Fan, I spend 3 years working for PW Leeds and I first saw Living Colour (Elvis is Dead) at Leeds University Refectory. 


Blackpool - Vegas of the north and the team followed by Howie and George.


Uncle Kens - KFC


Oldham must have beaten Leeds in the league as they didn't beat them in the League Cup that year.

Darwin to Kakadu round trip - 420km

Total distance since Sydney - 8,289km

11th February 1992 Day 206

The Diary
Another letter at poste restante - this time from Dileep. He's transferred to Newcastle, Steve's not seeing Cathy, Rich Goddard and Isobel were made redundant. Heavens to Betsy.


All my documents were present and correct at STA. I ordered some new frames for my lenses, looked at mozzie nets and coils, marvelled at the ineptitude of the Commonwealth Bank and sent Christy the crappest Valentine's card I could find. Also had some more injections including one in the bum. Ouch.

We all went to see JFK at the pictures, a marvellously complicated film that leaves you with a headache from the loud file score and from concentrating too hard. I think Donald Sutherland did it, so that he could marry Marilyn Monroe (who was already dead) and defect to the USSR to end the Cold War and beat Gorbachev to dismantling communism. Or it could have been......

Went for something to eat in town but it was shut. And it was raining. Phoned Christy, reverse charges and discovered my refund had turned up. Yee hah.


2012
Dileep - erstwhile flatmate from my time in Leeds with PW. He now lives in Melbourne and hasn't changed a bit. Steve (Allen) - our other flatmate - probably hasn't changed a bit. Other than he now seems to support Arsenal when he was always a Crystal Palace fan to my recollection. I remember watching the Man Utd v Crystal Palace FA Cup final at his parent's house. I think he down about 20 cans of Guinness during the game. 
Rich and Isobel - other friends from PW days. I think Rich lives in the USA and Isobel lives in Rome.


Mozzie nets, injections etc. - we were getting ready for our imminent departure to Asia.


Refund - I assume my tax refund.

10th February 1992 Day 205

The Diary
The shortest bus journey for quite some time - a mere 4 hours. We'd reached Darwin. I dashed to poste restante to pick up my mail after the 3 of us booked into the Darwin Transit Centre. 3 letters from Christy and 1 from dad. Shame I'd heard all the contents on the telephone.

Filled up at a pancake place and watched the English soccer as per usual. I even managed to phone home and catch someone in. Dad officially retires in April but finishes mid-March because of his holidays. He'll be a man of leisure like me!


2012

Katherine to Darwin - 317km

Total distance since Sydney - 7,869km

8th February 1992 Day 203

The Diary
Katherine was very hot and sticky but at least we had an air-conditioned room at the Kookaburra Lodge. Unfortunately we could only switch it on between 6pm and 10am. Still, it was something to look forward to. This being a Saturday the town was shut, although I did manage to find somewhere to get some photos developed. We found a pizza place that was open and rather than buy any garlic bread we, or should I say, Beth, picked it up from another table where some had been left. Cheapskate Backpackers!

In the evening Beth cooked a chilli after having a mare with the mince. She left it in the shop. We had our first experience of the wet season, which was rather unfortunate as we'd just hung out our washing to dry.


2012
Was the Kookaburra Lodge good or bad ? Don't recall - see here and decide for yourself.

7th February 1992 Day 202

The Diary

Up early for the umpteenth time and straight on to the coach for the early morning Rock climb. 

The Rock is 348m high but it seems a lot higher when you have to climb it. It was almost as steep as the road at the back of Stokes Street in Lane Cove that I climbed on the way to work every morning. Well, it was slightly steeper but the journey to work every day was good training.

I reached the top in 30-35 minutes passing lots of Japanese tourists that were dressed as if they were climbing Everest. Were the white gloves to keep their hands clean? I signed the book at the cairn at the summit with the - as usual - inappropriate comment. "Rock Lobster".

When Oz and Beth arrived a few minutes later we posed for photos just to prove we made it. One of the girls from our bus then burst into "whhoooowhhhooo-yeah yea-----h" and people all over the Rock responded with "you know you make me want to shout, woooh". She was such a good singer that we got her to do it again and we all had a good groove at the top. Crazy chick, man. 

On the way down we observed the life-cycle of the world-famous Uluru shrimp (well, Beth had heard of it) i.e. born, eat, shag, die. Oz and I pretended to rap jump down the ridges before I yomped to the bottom trying not to use the chain. Pumped up quads or what? Back at the bottom I read the plaques dedicated to 5 of the 25 people that had died climbing the Rock. And then there was Lindy Chamberlain's baby.....

After everyone was down we were taken on a base tour around the Rock to look at the Aboriginal Rock Art, (looked like graffitti), and strange rock formations (the big smile, whale head, dolphin, greyhound bus rock etc.) and rock pools. By this time Karen had attached herself to a group of Swedes, much to my relief.

Back to Yulara we went, picked up our gear, had lunch and waited for the bus. The bus dithered so much that we only had 5 minutes at Alice before jumping on the overnight bus to Katherine. The bus was so full it was a single seat all the way, the road-houses seemed to have run out of food and I couldn't see without my glasses. Great night.


2012

Yulara to Katherine via Alice Springs to Yulara - 1,627km

Total distance since Sydney - 7,552km

I think Karen just talked a lot hence my relief when she bent someone else's ear for a while. I could be wrong though - don't really recall why I was relieved.

6th February 1992 Day 201

The Diary

Up early for the 468km journey to Yulara. About the same as Billingham to London. The coach did it at a very leisurely pace stopping at just about every road house on the way including Virginia Camel Farm.

Mt Ebenezer was even smaller and less impressive than Thompson, Utah and Beth was warned not to take any photos as it was aboriginal owned. We finally arrived at Yulara and Beth and Karen dashed to the front of the queue to check us in while Oz and I rescued the bags. A good idea if ever there was one.

We had a couple of hours before catching the coach to The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) which was just as well since the girl at the food kiosk was on her first day. I dashed to get a newspaper for the journey and was delighted to discover we'd knocked Sheff Wed out of the FA Cup. How about winning away from home in the league lads?

Off to The Olgas we went and our coach driver Lloyd filled us in with all manner of snippets of information. He stopped for various photo opportunities and then we did a walk into Olga Gorge. Big.

Back towards Uluru, we stopped to look at a thorny lizard discovered by Frank the Pioneer driver. Then we all saw a rainbow over the Rock. Wow.

Lloyd took us to the base of the Rock to show us what we had to climb up. Cracking jokes all the time. Then we got ready for the sunset. It didn't quite work at the allotted time due to the clouds but it was pretty good just 10 minutes earlier.

Back at the hostel I went for an early night to rest my poor aching back and discovered my broken glasses.

2012

Alice Springs to Yulara - 468km

Yulara to Kata Tjuta to Uluru to Yulara round trip - 123km
Total distance since Sydney - 5,925km

Google maps reckons Billingham to London is 408km.


Having broken glasses and a pair of hard contact lenses only was going to be a bit of a problem. I couldn't wear the lenses all day and couldn't sleep in them so evenings and bus trips would be a problem until I could get a new pair of glasses. I wasn't counting on too many opticians in the outback.

5th February 1992 Day 200

The Diary
We checked into the Melanka Lodge which was more like a motel than a backpackers'. I ended up sharing with Karen, a South Effrican that Beth had met on Fraser Island.  Not feeling too well I went for a walk into town in search of food totally forgetting that I was supposed to call on Oz and Beth. By the time I got back, still under the weather, they'd gone out. So I went to the pool and chatted to Karen for a while. I quickly decided that lying in the heat was not what I wanted to do so I packed the swimming kit and headed to the local municipal pool. Even in Alice Springs they've got an Olympic sized pool. I did my slow motion impersonation of Glen Houseman/Keiran Perkins and proved that the previous days front crawl mile was no fluke.

Feeling much better by this time I packed my camera and headed off to do the sights - the signpost and the Anzac Hill lookout and the dried up Todd River. I bumped into the two young lovers and arranged to meet them back at the hostel. I had a quick beer with Karen at the hostel bar and met a mad German who didn't climb "the rock" on principle and also a Dawn French look-alike who kept saying "I know".


Karen went to bed early in order to make an early start and Oz, Beth and I went to the Old Alice Inn for our tea. The Inn was possibly the most luxurious pub I've been in in Australia and the food was pretty good. Got back to discover that some bastard had nicked my Boro towel from the washing line. If I catch them they'll be sorry. There can't be too many Boro towels in the outback. I was so mad I didn't care about Karen's snoring.

2012
Years later Oz and Beth somehow got Karen to do a good luck message for my wedding. They also borrowed a Boro towel and presented it to me at the wedding to replace the one that was stolen in Alice Springs. 


I recall that Karen was getting up early to do a balloon trip.

4th February 1992 Day 199

The Diary
A look at the School of the Air and the Royal Flying Doctor Service (also known as the life and times of Rev Flynn). Bought some bargain batteries and a bonza mini tripod after smashing one in the shop. Off to the swimming pool and another 32x50m. All front crawl. I've done it. Shame it took me about 50mins. Wasted a lot of time before catching the overnight bus to Alice Springs. 


The first 200km was on a single track, pot-holed, roller-coaster of a road but once into the NT the road improved. The coach seemed to stop everywhere, clocks went back 90mins and we changed buses at 2:30am at Three Ways. We rolled into Alice Springs about 9:15am and I felt awful.

2012
Mt Isa to Alice Springs - 1,169km
Total distance since Sydney - 5,334km