She was heading off to Sydney and then New Zealand.
I was joining a trip from Cairns to Alice springs through the outback for three days.
The 2067km road trip into the heart of Australia started early in the morning. There were 24 of us on the bus.We headed off through the Atherton Tablelands.
Our guide Alan talked us through the proposed route
The landscape changed from rainforest to Eucalypt forest. We stopped at Australia's smallest bar at the Oasis Roadhouse.
At lunchtime we made our own sandwiches and washed up before getting back on the bus to continue the journey on 275 kms of unsealed roads.
There are signs warning motorists that cattle is free to roam in the outback, so they may be on the roads.
There was a lot of wildlife to see along the way, including Ostriches.
We took a look at Porcupine Gorge,Australia's mini grand Canyon.
The first night stop over was at the Western Hotel in Hughenden. It was like something from 1970 with very dated decor. We had dinner in the bar and I have to say the locals were a very strange looking bunch of fellas!!
Day 2 we got up early to watch the sunrise..then we had a complete change of landscape. The flat black soil plans.
Our first destination today was Winton, the birthplace of Australia's unofficial national anthem, Waltzing Matilda! It is also the place where Quanta airline was started. A small group of men met in a club to form the company in 1920.
We had a BBQ for lunch at a Cattle station. In the afternoon we visited one of Australia's oldest outback pubs.The Middleton pub started business in 1876.The population there is 6!!!!
It had a great atmosphere and we could have stayed there chatting for ages, but we had to hit the road!
Our overnight accommodation was at Wirrelyerna station.
An authentic sheep/cattle station. We had a great meal prepared over a campfire and we sat around the campfire under the stars chatting for a long time.
Another very early start to the day and another breathtakingly beautiful sunrise. We had 800km to do today from Boulia to Alice Springs. Everything was fine and dandy for the first few hours. Then we stopped for one of our toilet breaks.(Which literally meant boys to the right of the bus and girls to the left.We had to find a bush to wee behind or just crouch down and pee in the middle of nowhere. It took us all some time before we got used to it.But there was no choice!!)
Anyway this particular stop ended up being longer than usual. Alan informed us that the bus was overheating and something in the engine had blown and we needed to be towed!! It was scortching hot and many of the group were on other trips and flights the next day, so everyone was very anxious about whether we would make it to Alice springs that night.(I was ok because I had given myself a couple of extra days in Alice springs before my next trip)
We tried to make the most of it and kept our spirits up by playing a game of catch by the side of the road. After a couple of hours a pickup truck came and towed us for about half an hour.But then that was no good because the air in the bus breaks was leaking out, which made the breaks lock on! They needed pumping on every now and then and the truck could not do that. So they were on the radios again trying to get help. Fortunately for us a two story cattle train arrived and offered to tow us to Boulia, a couple of hours away.
As they were connecting the two vehicles up I decided to get everyone together for a group shot. And As I stood focusing the camera, I felt something hit my cheek.In what seemed like slow motion I thought to myself "Something just hit my face", "what could it be? A fly?" then I realised that the cattle truck was on that side, and even though it was yards away, I had been splattered with COW POO!!!!!! I started squeeling and everyone came over to help me.They took the camera and chucked water at me and I had to clean it all off. It was so funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then we piled onto the bus and got towed to Boulia. Because the airconditioning would not work on the bus we had to have the skylight open and the bus just filled with dust.We were covered in dust when we eventually arrived in Boulia. Lots of the group were running round frantically making phone calls to change their trips and flights.
We had to stay the night so we made the most of it by having a few beers and checking out the town. We eventually arrived in Alice springs the next day after a very arduous 14 hour bus journey!
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