Andy Bundock Art Director | Senior designer
andybundock@mac.com
Australia
01: Darwin – Walking tour
Monday 9th October 2006 Arrived at Darwin Airport to find a very helpful lady at the tourism office. She was a site for sore eyes at five in the morning. We had nowhere to stay but she almost effortlessly booked us in to ‘The Youth Shack’ on Mitchell Street. It was the only place with [...]
02: Darwin – Casaurina Beach
Thursday 12th October 2006 So the first of our stupidly early starts and time to meet the people we would be spending the next three days with. There were four Italians, two Swiss, One Aussie and us. Once everyone had been picked up our first stop was Casaurina Beach not far out of town. Her [...]
03: Darwin – Corrobborie Billabong
Thursday 12th October 2006 (continued) Next stop was Corrobborie Billabong. Here we met a great old fella called Ted. A red faced old fella weathered by the sun in Roy Orbison dark shades khaki shorts and an interesting choice of baggy shirt. Now Ted was the classic bushman. Straight forward and told it like it [...]
04: Darwin – Barramundi Gorge
Thursday 12th October 2006 (continued) Next stop was White Lily billabong where Matt, our guide, put a map on the bonnet of the land cruiser and gave us a little talk. We spoke about the outback environment and the seasons and where we would be going and what we might see. As he mentioned some [...]
05: Darwin – Twin Falls
Friday 13th October 2006 After breakfast we broke camp and set off. A lot of the drive was on dirt tracks, through forest and over river crossings which meant a really bumpy ride and 4 wheel drive. The Land cruiser came into it’s own. You can see why everyone has one round here. Twin falls was [...]
06: Darwin – Jim Jim Falls
Friday 13th October 2006 (continued) Jim Jim Falls was next on the agenda. It was in the same part of the National Park so only a short drive away. Like Twin falls it was in it’s dry season state of virtual non existence. More like a light rain of a few drips. During the wet season [...]
07: Darwin – Ambangbang billabong to Ubirr
Saturday 14th October Our third and final day was a lot easier than the previous two. The walks were short but the driving long. Our first stop wasn’t far from camp. Ambangbang billabong a great place for birdlife. The Whistling ducks were particularly entertaining. They would huddle in groups and start arguing with each other. [...]
08: Darwin to Alice Springs
Sunday 15th October 2006 Up for another early start and another bus and a new group of people. Well actually it was two bus loads of twenty four people. Too many to mention. On the the move again as we start the long journey to Alice Springs. A total distance of 1800km. This transfer was [...]
09: Devils Marbles
Tuesday 17th October 2006 Tennant creek used to be a telegraph station until gold was found by the Telegraph station manager. He decided to send a telegraph to his friends back home. By the time the message had been through the network of other telegraph stations five hundred or so people knew about it and [...]
10: Wycliffe Well – Ufos
Tuesday 17th 9ctober 2006 (continued) We stopped for tea and a stretch of the legs at Wycliffe Well, Australia’s UFO capital. Apparently there have been numerous sightings and brightly coloured lights in the sky round here so the campsite have cashed in and painted all the buildings suitably with murals of aliens and little green [...]
11: Alice springs
Wednesday 18th October 2006 So here we were. Another bus and another new group of people. This time a smaller bus and a proper tour. To be honest this was the big one. Big in many ways, for a start Uluru or Ayers Rock and you don’t get much bigger than that. We would also [...]
12: Alice Springs – Kings Canyon & Whitchety Grubs
Thursday 19th October 2006 After breakfast at camp our first stop was Kings Canyon. A huge crack in the ground at Watarrka national park. Discovered by Ernest Gilles in the 1850s he named the canyon after one of his expedition sponsors Charles King. Millions of years ago when the Australian coastline was very different and [...]
13: Uluru – Ayers Rock
Friday 20th October 2006 One by one the bleary eyed backpackers emerged from their swags and dome tents. We were awake – just, and walked like zombies on to the bus. We arrived at ‘The Rock’ for sunrise along with the rest of the known world, who had also made their way there in various [...]
14: The Olgas – Kata Tjuta
Saturday 21 October 2006 Our last day of the trip was to start with another sunrise. This time at the Olgas or Kata Tjuta. We went to the sunrise viewing point. As you look to the horizon the sun rises just to the right of Ayers rock and to your left the Olgas change colour as [...]
15: Alice Springs – Kangaroo sanctuary
Sunday 22nd October 2006 Ahh! Rest day. Push the proverbial reset button. Today we just ‘did stuff’, like washing and repack our bags for the next little adventure. Everything was covered in a combination of red sand, sunscreen and grime. Time to get everything clean including ourselves. After getting up stupidly early for tour pick-ups [...]
16: Cairns
Tuesday 24th October 2006 Have you ever had one of those days? You know, the kind of day that you really should give up on and forget about. But you keep on going in blind faith that your perseverance will come good. Today was one of those days. It was to be a get things [...]
17: Cairns – Cape Tribulation
Friday 27th October 2006 Fairly early start to our trip to Cape Tribulation, time to do some fun stuff rather than boring tick things of list stuff! It was only going to take about half a day to get there with a few interesting stops along the way to break up the journey. Our guide [...]
18: Cairns – Barrier Reef aboad the Rumrunner
Saturday 28th October 2006 Today we were to spend the day aboard the Rumrunner catamaran. We chose to go out to the reef up at Cape Trib. instead of Cairns because only two companies operate from up there where as over fifty share the reef Cairns. The crew were bouncing around when we arrived claiming [...]
19: Kurunda
Tuesday 31st October 2006 Checked out of ‘The Serpent’…again. This time straight into a cab and to Backpacker Campervan’s depot to pick up our new home. Whilst we waited for it to be brought round for us we reflected on our time in Cairns. All we did was sort stuff out. But we knew were [...]
20: Atherton Tablelands
Thursday 2nd November 2006 Waterfalls, Waterfalls, Waterfalls…and lakes. The Atherton Tablelands and the Cairns highlands are lush green areas in stark contrast to the red dry semi arid desert of the outback. The typical Aussie of red earth and blue sky gives way to what could quite easily be mistaken for typical English countryside with [...]
21: Mission Beach
Friday 3rd November 2006 Decided to have a nothing day, good job too. It was hot. Andy Had one of his can’t get going days where try as he might he just couldn’t wake up. We had planned on staying at Mission Beach a couple of days at least. So beach and pottering around then, [...]
22: Magnetic Island – Laurekeets
Sunday 5th November 2006 Up early to get good start on the driving before the sun got too high in the sky. We made good time and made it to Townsville by around midday and went straight to a tourist information kiosk. We needed to know about ferries to Magnetic Island and accommodation once we [...]
23: Magnetic Island – Horseshoe Bay
Tuesday 7th November 2006 The plan for today was to hire a four wheeled drive and explore the island. Most of it is unreachable by normal two wheeled drive cars as the roads are not sealed or are just too steep. All to often the tow trucks have to pull the tourist up from the [...]
24: Magnetic Island – Bungalow Bay
Monday 6th November 2006 Now before we continue with this journal entry we have to begin with a the phonecall we had at 4:04am. We wouldn’t normally put such events into the journal. but this one was of particular consequence. And technically it was the first thing that happened on this day. You see, back home [...]