Alex

Hello again everyone!

The beefy Sky Caravn

Not contented to just calmly settle back into the Tully routine after such a good road-trip, the following weekend I rocked on down to the local Skydive Centre! Despite having minimal funds I justified it by saying I hadn’t jumped for 8 months, and so if I didn’t jump soon they might not let me…right? )

An instructor ran over a few drills with me and asked me a few questions, and before too long we all climbed into a big Sky Caravan and I was soaking up the view as we climbed to altitude. The view was stunning as you could see the barrier reef in a light blue sea, the white beaches, the rainforest and then the mountain ranges all a once. Mind you I couldn’t really appreciate much of this out in the fresh air as the instructor had followed me out and had me doing backflips, turns and forward tracks – this I had a little trouble with! I kept falling out of my position which makes for an excellent video! (I’ll try and get a copy for Danny’s YouTube channel soon). I was on a 170sq foot parachute which was much closer to my ideal size than the 210 back in the UK, and as a result my canopy handling was excellent and a lot of fun – I landed within a meter of the cross! )

Having a sneaky rollie in the shade...

I did one more jump that Sunday, doing a few somersaults out the plane, turns, a triple backflip and some hook turns under canopy – simply awesome!
One of the best things though was that there is a large mountain right next to the drop zone, and so you can really get a sense of how fast your falling when contours suddenly take shape out of the flat ground and a mountain rushes up to meet you!

Other than that adrenaline-filled day there’s not a great deal to report I’m afraid; I’ve settled back into work and although it was looking decidedly shaky for a while my job’s safe for another three months. There’s been a lot of people fired or only working one day a week recently due to the cold nights (bananas take longer to grow), and on one Friday there was only around 15 people on our farm – down from around 120! Lots of people have left as a result, which is a shame as the dance floor on a Friday night just isn’t the same without Marsaille’s erratic dancing!

Despite some of my favourite people leaving there is still a good crowd here so its all good, the only trouble is with all these people discussing travel plans I’m beginning to get itchy feet!

Also thanks for your messages guys – its nice to hear your news too! Until next time, take care, Al x

A little way up the road

Well I’m writing this in absolute bliss – I’ve just had a hot shower and I’m curled up in a bed in Alice Springs! I’ll start from the beginning…

Sunset on the first night

After a few hours of hectic and slightly stressful running around the city we made it onto the open road, me, an English guy called Matt, Sandra – a wild Swede and a slightly eccentric amish Canadian girl named Glenda, all inside a sporty Toyota Aurora.

Only an hour out of the city centre we found ourselves on a quiet, winding road up through mountains covered in rainforest, with some great views down to the valleys below. We took a tourist road through some rolling hills and then pulled up for the night down a private track, where we had a good laugh and fell asleep on the grass.

An hour from Cairns... (colour accent)

The next morning we were up and off before dawn because we were all absolutely freezing! (Sandra had the only sleeping bag). That day we took a two hour detour up to the sea on a whim hoping for a swim, but a local warned us off by listing all the types of sharks, jellyfish, stonefish, seasnakes and crocodiles all milling around the shore!

On the way to a little dirt track near Cloncurry where we would eventually spend the night around a fire we were pulled over by the police – in the absolute-middle-of-bloody-nowhere – and Matt was given a $300 speeding ticket (120km in a 100km), which gave Glenda chuckles for the rest of the trip.

Devils Marbles

The sunrise the next morning was fantastic, marred only by the number of new additions to my knobbly arms – the flies in the outback really are incredible, they literally land on your hand as you wave them away.

Sometime that day we hit the 1,500km mark and crossed into the Northern Territory, heading for Tennants Creek. We pulled off the road to climb a mountain and explore some caves but had some real trouble getting back onto the road! We scraped the underside of the really low-lying car and put some good gashes in the bumpers trying to cross a dry creek, but we made it in the end and bedded down on some soft sand in a small gully.

One of the stunning outback sunrises

I was a little tired and stiff the next day – not helped by the late night and whisky, but soon got moving again when we arrived at our first major attraction – Devil’s Marbles. Me and Sandra especially had heaps of fun running, climbing and jumping all over these magnificent boulders, all precariously balanced on one another rising out of the desert.

Not long later we pulled into Alice Springs and sat in a Burger King for a few hours, getting washed, shaved and charging our cameras. Being absolute cheapskates we headed out of town again to

The motley crew

find a quiet spot for the night, and were so absorbed in looking for the right kind of track we passed two huge signs saying “PROHIBITED AREA – TURN BACK NOW”. We quickly turned around when we arrived right at the gates of a CIA radar base! We thought the guards looked fairly interested in us but thought nothing of it until a Federal Police Officer who must have been following us to our campsite came to check our story and IDs! )

On the 5^th day of our trip we caught our first glimpse of the famous Uluru (Ayres Rock), and drove right up to the base for a long walk around. The rock really is an impressive sight and made all the more stunning when the colour deepens further to a rich brown at sunset. After jostling with tour buses to see the sunrise we went for a really long walk through Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), which was beautiful – sheer walls of deep rich orange cast a glow on our faces as we hopped, skipped and strolled around the domes.

The open road...

That night we ended up camping in a layby after helping out a Melbourne couple who had got their car well and truly stuck in the sand, and had some good conversations around the fire eating tinned ravioli and peanut butter and jam sandwiches. )

Yesterday was probably the best day of the trip, as we went on a huge, rambling walk all over, through and around King’s Canyon.

I saw a kangaroo down on a little plateau, set against an awesome backdrop of the great canyon with sweeping flat plains in the distance, which was a truly memorable sight. All in all

The stunning Kata Tjuta jumble

it’s been a fantastic trip, my favourite part being to experience the beauty of the stereotypical Australian scenery – the white grass, the green trees, the red rock all under a bright blue sky.

And so here I am back in Alice Springs ready to fly back to the bananas tomorrow – all on my lonesome though as the others saw a sign saying “ß-Alice Springs === Adelaide-à” and literally there and then opted for Adelaide (another 2,000km or so). I would have joined them for another adventure had I not screwed myself over quite so badly financially by coming on this one!

I just wish I could show you more pictures as I have some stunners but these will have to do…

All the best for now, I hope your enjoying spring, Alex x

Hit the mark just outside of Alice Springs on our way back