My last Australian stop was supposed to be in Perth, but as my old friend Vonzer was in Fremantle I decided to stop there first. It turned out to be a great idea, as Fremantle (or Freos as they call it there) is a tiny cozy town full of bars, restaurants and pubs, most of them concentrated in what has been nicknamed the "Cappucino Strip". Best places of all Little Creatures, a huge microbrewery bar with great rigorously home made beer and a great chilled out atmosphere. Not surprisingly Vonzer used to work here and is the local hero, so we had a few "Irish style" sessions there.
The theme of this post has to be The Godfathers though. First of all because I met up with an old Italian friend, Federica (we were together in elementary school and then again at university), and at dinner with her, her husband, sister and all the children was really like entering an old mafia movie. All children (but the husband as well) speak Italian and English, but very often the two languages are mixed, so you'll hear movie sentences like: Hey Mamma, can I have a salsiccia? One of the kids was wearing a Pescara (centre Italy) Football jersey and on top a Fremantle Aussie rules footy jumper! Such a pity didn't have the camera on me.
The Godfather part II was in Perth. In the part of the city called Northbridge you have Il Padrino Caffe'. The owner, Nunzio, constantly behind the counter juggling pizzas, won the Best Pizza in the World contest in Sicily. You would imagine a fancy and very expensive restaurant with waiters in tux asking you: what would you like to start sir? and may I recommend.. Instead is a little family owned trattoria, with Nunzio's wife abruptly asking you: Whatcha want?? like an old-style Italian mama. The question is transformed in a (still abrupt but warmer) Whatcha want, darling? after the third time you go there.
Definitely a place with character, food is very cheap and yes, phenomenal! Altogether an offer you can't refuse!
Ayers Rock is a resort in the middle of the desert, and by resort read the worse meaning of the word. A circular road with less than 5 hotels and one camping/backpacker place. All owned by the same company. All incredibly expensive. People go there for one reason only: to see Uluru. And when you come from far far away of course you won't say no and go back to where you came from without seeing "the Rock". They know it and they take advantage of it.
On the other side has to be said that the place is indeed spectacular, and because of the big open spaces everywhere even if there's so many tourist around you you don't feel too close or oppressed. Even more controversial is the fact that the Aboriginal people are indeed the owners of the place, but only a fraction of the entrance charge goes to them. And to add more their belief says that people shouldn't climb the holy rock, still climbing it is possible to everybody (for a price of course). All this controversy adds somehow to the myth and fashion of the place. It is indeed one of those "must see in your lifetime" places. More is discussed on the excellent Real Australian Outback Guide.
So what did I do? Climbing? not really. Of all the ways of disrespecting a culture this is indeed the most "tiring" one. I went instead for a camel ride at sunset, followed by glass of wine and camel salami (ride them then eat them could have been the company motto). I've learnt how camels were important in the old days to travel the desert, how they were imported and then when they were no longed needed released, with the consequence that now that are more than 800K wild camels roaming free. I've learnt how they are quite clever, they say like a 7 year old child. I would add they are also a lot more quieter and well behaved than a a child at that age.
After a night spent in a classic (but still recreated for tourists) outback bar listening all night to "A home among the gum trees" the next day I went for one of those tours that will guide through the base of the Rock, explain aboriginal legends and then bring you to see Uluru from a distance at sunset.
The good thing about this tour is that was managed by Aboriginal people, so at least a bit more than the small fraction of the park entry charge will go to them. And speaking of sunset, there are two specific sunset areas (and same for sunrise); one for cars, one for buses. Nowhere else in the park you can just stop and admire. The sunset areas are basically huge carparks, with people sipping wine or barbecuing while "admiring" the view. If the images below revealing the "behind the picture" reality didn't spoil it for you yet you can always check out the video. Not ideal, but still a great view, plus as I said plenty of space, so you can find your little corner to take your picture of the rock in peace or simply savour the moment.
And even with all the crowds, the smell of bbq, the hundreds of cars or coaches parked behind you.. when the sun goes down and you see the reflections on the rock, well for a second or two you forget all the rest, and I suppose that makes it worth it.
I always loved deserts, the idea of a road going straight for miles, nothing on the left, nothing on the right. So it's no wonder that while in Australia I decided to stop in Alice Springs and Ayers Rock. From the plane you could see the vastness of the red desert in its majesty, and when you land.. the red of the desert and the blue of the sky is all in front of you.
Plenty to do in “the Alice”; parks, museums, reptile centres, and western movie style saloons. I particularly enjoyed the School of the air: A school that teaches children in the outbaack in a radius of more than 1000kms; the old days it was done via radio, nowadays by internet. I guess the trainer in me is still alive and wanted to know more about “distant learning”. The idea was inspired by the Royal Flying Doctors; doctors that will fly in an “ambulance plane” to remote destinations in the outback, or sometimes just giving instructions by radio.
Nature is indeed different here from other places in Australia, and definitely from any other part of the world. Instead of pigeons you have all kind of colourful parrots flying around, some pink ones called Galahs are particularly common everywhere (like pigeons in some places sometimes too common). The best was however the Thorny Devil, a cute little lizard that looks like.. well a thorny devil.
The word “river” here means actually “dry bed of a river” as you can see here. They even have a boat race every year, on a boat with no bottom and the racers just running in it. I believe it's the only boat race in the world which gets canceled where there is water. The river actually runs under the bed, and aboriginal people judging from the plants on the surface will actually be able to tell where the water actually is. If some explorer would have consulted them they wouldn't have perished trying to find the inner lake in Australia.
To learn about how to find water, which plants are edible, and tons more info on desert life the best place is the Desert Park, just outside Alice. As the very informative Real Australian Outback Guide mentions: ”If you have time for only one attraction in Alice Springs, visit the Alice Springs Desert Park. If you can spend only one day in Alice Springs, make it a day at the Desert Park. And if you have all the time in the world? Well, lucky you.” I rented a bike and off I went through Alice and the desert road outside it, and spent a whole day in the Park learning about and watching reptiles, kangaroos, birds, plants, and the red red ground contrasting with the immense blue sky. To top it off I went biking on my return on the "river", and i was luck enough to bump into wallabies in the wild coming out at sunset. A final note talking of new animals. Not only I've seen them, but being on top of the food chain I got to eat a lot of them. Well here's my review:
Crocodile: A mix between fish and chicken. Nothing special to tell the truth. Emu: Lovely sausage, somehow with some "venisonish" taste Wild Buffalo: Beef after all, bit more "smoky" if you want Camel: I was looking forward to it but no. Definitely not recommended. Incredibly chewy. You'll chew for hours and it's still there in your mouth (untill when nobody's looking you'll spit it away). Kangaroo: the best ever! Rigorously cooked very rare (the old days that's how Aboriginal people would get some moisture) it's a fantastic meat and incredibly tasty.
Did I make you hungry or angry at me now? Bon appetit either way!
Once again I ended up in a place of which I didn't know the existence just few days before. I was talking to my friend Emanuela in Sydney, and she suggested to check this town out. And so I did. Having found a cheap flight two days later I was there.
Cairns is famous for being backpackers capital, and judging from the accents I could hear down the road I would say Irish backpackers capital (with Donegal people appearing to be the majority). Irish ex-pats even have a magazine around here adeptly named: What's the Craic!
Cairns though is also the place where you have two World Heritage areas side by side: the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics Rainforest. Not being a water man I stayed away from the sea, but managed to make the most of the land rainforest related activites.
First one was going up on the village of Kuranda by a scenic train, and down by the Skyrail Cablecar. The village itself is an ex-hippie community famous for its market, but is now extremely touristic, with some shops having only Japanese speaking staff to attract rich Japanese tourist (they wont even talk to anyone else!). The cablecar though goes down for 7,5 kms on a spectacular ride on top of the rainforest, giving you also the opportunity to stop and get out for a closer look.
The rainforest is really an amazing wonder to contemplate. It has been there for more than 400 million years; you have around 3000 plant species and a third of all Australia mammals live here, not considering all plant and animal species that are found only here. You can really understand here the meaning of ecosystem; plants and animals relying on each other and beautifully working together. Plants that rely on birds to spread their seeds, vines engaging in races to reach the light using trees as support, plants using trees as pots and wait for them to grow to go to the top. We are kind of used to see animals fighting for survival, but it was amazing to see plants and trees literally fighting with each other. Each animal or plant has a purpose; and really makes you wonder what's man purpose here. On a lighter note, the best part was seeing drunk birds!! Yes they eat berries that fermented in the sun, so you have really strange sounds and flight patterns!!
I liked the rainforest so much that I decided to go on a full day & night spotting tour. Well I've never seen so many animals and plants I've never seen before in a day. From platypus to bandicoots, from wallabies to Northern Leaf-tailed Geckos, from whait-a-while vines that will stick to your clothes (or face) to gympie gympie, a plant that when touched procures a burning pain that lasts for months! The best part though was seeing a rare Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo. Imagine a small roo, but that jumps up and live on trees!
Of course I went to see koalas and crocodiles, pythons, etc in various zoo-type farms, but seeing all those animals in the wild, while walking through the rainforest with just some torchlight was def the best and more authentic part.
Probably because I was coming from the jungles of Vanuatu, but one the first thing that struck me about Sydney was how “city” it is; as in skyscrapers, offices, lots of people running around (many of them literally running, plenty of joggers to be seen). I started exploring the center of the city, the CBD (Central Business District as they call here any center of any city, even if that center would have no business at all) on a late afternoon, at that time when everybody leaves the office and start running home (or to the pub). Well, I found myself surrounded by these people, and even if I was just strolling around my pace automatically became faster, at the stage where I found myself hurrying without knowing where. Call it sense of belonging, maybe an atavistic sense of the clan, but I almost had no control over it, and to be honest, I almost missed the times when I was working and was part of this clan. The same sensation occurred to me in Singapore; again maybe because coming back from the jungles (that time it was Indonesia), but i really appreciated the skyline, and all the fruits of man's work and intelligence in these big cities. So am I destined to work in an office after all? Is it that the few months in various remote/tropical location still didn't manage to get the “city boy” out of me? Well I have a few more remote/tropical destinations that I'd like to see before I settle down somewhere anyway, so..I'll makes sure I do see them! Then time will tell..
The main highlights of my stay in Sydney can be summarised as follows:
The not-bad-at-all weather.. is this is winter, I can't imagine summer.. a note on this: all pubs would have gas heaters outdoors, in what would be considered a hot Irish summer night!
The fantastic views of the skyline, the Opera House and the Sydney Bridge, from basically any place facing water.. if you happen to be in Cockle's bay than you can combine the view with gorgeous food.
A new range of animals and birds just hanging around.. instead of sparrows you have white noisy cockatoos, instead of seagulls you have ibis..
Being upgraded for a ridiculous price to a fancy/classy/funky hotel, with on top of that an i-pod station, a 42” TV and Xbox in your room
The best part of Sydney though was meeting againg the folks from Ireland (or from the times in Ireland): Emanuela, which I managed to see 2 times in the last 4 years in Dub and met for a day out here in Syd; Suan, Gabh, Grainne, Colin; it was really like being back in Dub, where a quick drink after work would become a lot of drinks, followed by: you have to see this other pub, oh you have to see that other pub, oh let's go back to mine for just one more..
Wild nights like the rare auld times indeed.. cheers folks !!
In the part of the city called Northbridge you have Il Padrino Caffe'. The owner, Nunzio, constantly behind the counter juggling pizzas, won the Best Pizza in the World contest in Sicily. You would imagine a fancy and very expensive restaurant with waiters in tux asking you: what would you like to start sir? and may I recommend.. Instead is a little family owned trattoria, with Nunzio's wife abruptly asking you: Whatcha want?? like an old-style Italian mama. The question is transformed in a (still abrupt but warmer) Whatcha want, darling? after the third time you go there. 
