MacDonnell Ranges

Today was my last full day in the Outback, and I decided I had to see some more natural scenery to get a real feel for the place. The MacDonnell Ranges is a small mountain range running west to east through Alice Springs. I booked a one-day tour to explore the West MacDonnell Ranges, and although it turned out to be a series of small rocky hills by Utah standards, it still was a great way to get to know a different part of the Outback.

After a brief stop at Anzac Hill, which overlooks Alice Springs, and John Flynn’s grave, which features a giant granite boulder to honor the RFDS founder, I headed 30 miles west of Alice Springs with the rest of the group. I don’t usually like to join group tours when I travel as it’s usually much more interesting to wander around on my own, but occasionally it’s a lot more cost-effective and simpler to join a tour. Today’s tour was very different from anything I’ve booked while traveling on my own: it turned out to be a group consisting mostly of 60+ year-old Australian retirees. I guess there’s nothing wrong with traveling with retirees, and it turned out to be an interesting way to get to know some local Australians, but suffice it to say that my pace today was somewhat more relaxed.

The group made two other stops in the MacDonnell Ranges before lunchtime: one at ‘Simpson’s Gap’, and another at ‘Standley Chasm’. Both places featured dry, grassy terrain and small red-rock cliffs, and similar sites could easily be found near Cedar City or St. George. Hiking around in the tiny canyons reminded me of family trips I took as a little kid, and the eucalyptus trees and possibility of seeing a wombat added an exotic element to it all.

Spending time with groups of Australians has been a good opportunity to get a feel for the culture. Nearly every time I’ve been in a group of native Australians during the past week I’ve noticed that they make a lot of wise cracks with each other and are very witty, yet also very relaxed, friendly, and laid-back. A short conversation today between the van driver, Danny, and a random old man on the tour exemplifies the culture well:

Danny: “On your left you’ll see a river basin where aborigines traditionally performed rain dances. If you like you can all perform a rain dance of your own later on.”

Old Man (with great anticipation): “Does the rain dance involve nudity?”

Danny: “Yeah, we can do that. I’m easy goin’.”

Later today I visited the Alice Springs Desert Park, an immaculately maintained desert zoo that features authentic recreations of the various types of desert ecosystems. While walking through the River Basin ecosystem, Desert Sands ecosystem, and Woodlands ecosystem I stopped at various enclosures featuring birds and reptiles native to Central Australia. The most memorable of the animals was the ‘Princess Parrot’, an Australian parrot featuring brightly colored pink, green, blue, and yellow feathers. I also confess that I enjoyed the kangaroo enclosure; an enclosure that visitors can walk into to view the kangaroos inside, most of whom are sprawled lazily in the shade. Before leaving the Desert Park I watched the ‘Birds of Prey’ show, a presentation that featured live birds swooping through the air and performing stunts for the audience. One bird, the ‘Black Kite’ demonstrated its ability to catch prey in mid-air and eat it in flight.

At night I headed back to the ‘Sounds of Starlight Theater’ for a two-hour didgeridoo performance. Andrew Langford, the internationally acclaimed didgeridoo player I met yesterday, belted out original music using various types of didgeridoos as two other musicians accompanied him with drums, chimes, and rattles. I never imagined that a man could be as passionate about the didgeridoo as Mr. Langford is. Each of his original songs was created with a story of the Outback in mind, and Langford excitedly shared his inspiration with the crowd.

Alice Springs

Alice Springs reminds me of St. George, Utah. After a short flight from Ayers Rock this morning, I took a walk through town and noticed quite a few similarities. Both cities are mid-sized, low rise metropolises, both are surrounded by rocky plateaus, both are in the middle of the desert, both have warm, dry weather, both have streets using the grid system, both are near wildly exotic natural red-rock formations, and both are centers of tourism for the region. With that said, I doubt there are any outlet malls in Alice Springs… and I’ve never seen a wild kangaroo or an aborigine in St. George.

I began my day in Alice Springs by visiting the ‘Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia Museum’. The museum documents the development of a flying doctor service in the outback; a service that makes it possible for Australians to live in remote areas of the outback and still receive emergency medical attention when it is needed. I was interested to learn about John Flynn, the founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), and how he began the organization in 1939 with a small network of radio transmitters and a single tiny airplane. Currently the service has 19 centers of operations and extends throughout most of Australia, enabling doctors to pilot airplanes to tiny airstrips in the most isolated locations of the outback. As a side note, I also learned the meaning of the name of Australia’s national airline QANTAS; it’s an acronym: Queensland and Northern Territory Arial Service. The museum in Alice Springs is located at the current operational headquarters of the RFDS, and during a half-hour spent there I watched an employee coordinate one of the emergency flights and was even passed in the hall by an actual flying doctor.

I think I spoke too soon when I wrote in my last entry that the ‘Real Australia’ isn’t about aborigines and didgeridoos. Alice Springs is packed with aborigines. Granted, they aren’t covered in face paint and holding wild dance ceremonies like the aborigines in ‘Crocodile Dundee’, but at least 50% of the non-tourist population in Alice Springs must be aborigine. I guess it’s about like seeing a Native American in Taos, New Mexico; they’re around, but for the most part they dress and act just like everyone else.

That brings me to didgeridoos… I noticed a flyer advertising a free didgeridoo lesson in Alice Springs and headed to ‘Sounds of Starlight Theatre’ this afternoon to learn how to play with a group of about fifteen others. The lesson was conducted by Andrew Langford, a tall, blonde Australian who has lived in Alice Springs for the last 25 years and is internationally renowned for his proficiency with the didgeridoo. I was blown away with the sounds Mr. Langford was able to make with a hollow stick of wood; the rhythms, textures, and melodies he created could rival those of an accomplished violinist. I can’t say that I was quite as proficient. My rhythms and textures sounded more like an old, tired, inexperienced tuba player. Still, it was fun to try to learn the ancient aboriginal instrument, and now I have an appreciation for what it takes to really play the thing.

Later in the afternoon I stopped into the Alice Springs Reptile Center; an exhibit featuring several live reptiles from Central Australia, including a 12-foot crocodile. I happened to arrive just in time for a presentation during which visitors can handle the reptiles. An expert reptile handler showed off a few choice animals for the crowd; a lizard with skin like a pinecone and a tail that looks like a second head, a lizard with a penchant for climbing on top of peoples’ heads, and a six foot snake with skin that reflected bright green and blue colors with the light (I was reminded of a similar place I visited in Bangkok – a snake farm where the Thai staff excitedly introduced a giant King Cobra and other infamous snakes). I enjoyed handling all the reptiles at the Alice Springs Reptile Center, but my favorite was easily the long green snake, which slithered along my arms and wrapped its body around my torso.

Passing aborigines in town and playing the didgeridoo are both exciting experiences that scream ‘stereotypical Australia’ to me; but I also had the chance to go looking for wild kangaroos today. Wayne, the manager of the hostel I’m staying at, directed me to the top of a rocky hill east of Alice Springs, where he was certain I would find kangaroos. Immediately after hiking to the top of the hill I got very lucky and spotted a kangaroo hopping along. I followed the animal for a few minutes and snapped a few pictures, but unfortunately the beast quickly hopped off and I spent the rest of my time on the hill spotting no kangaroos, but heaps of their dung. Still, it was incredible to me to actually find a wild kangaroo on my own in Australia.

I finished off my day with a juicy hamburger at ‘Bojangles Saloon & Restaurant’. The place reminded me of an Old West style saloon, complete with swinging doors to enter and exit. Speaking of the Old West, I’ve decided that there are a lot of parallels between the American Old West and the Australian Outback. Stories of the Old West are filled with all the classic stereotypes; wild Indians with bows and arrows, headdresses, and facepaint, heroic cowboys and gunslingers, and the occasional mountain man and ‘I wrestled a grizzly bear’ story. These days the American Old West is a tall tale; gone but not forgotten, and with plenty of mementos to remember it by. The Australian Outback is similar. Crocodile Dundee is a heroic characterization of the Outback that incorporates all the stereotypes. Mick Dundee wrestled crocs instead of grizzlies, and while his story is legendary to anyone who has seen the Hollywood movie, it’s about as realistic as exaggerated accounts of Jim Bridger or Davy Crockett. Still, I’d love to see the movie again when I get home, and as long as I’m in Australia I’ll enjoy experiencing the modern-day, realistic version of Hollywood’s tall tale.

Uluru

While returning from the Great Barrier Reef on Friday I joked with an Australian traveler about the stereotypes Americans have of Australia…

“Every American who comes to Australia wants the ‘Crocodile Dundee’ experience; sitting around a campfire with a bunch of aborigines playing the didgeridoo.”

It would be great to spend two weeks in Australia hacking my way through the bush with a machete like Mick Dundee did in the outback; having wild late-night rendezvous with the aborigines, covering myself in face paint, and playing the didgeridoo. The real Australia is a bit different… but it can be just as colorful depending on what you make of it.

For me, part of experiencing the ‘Real Australia’ was getting to the Outback. I’ve learned that the term ‘Outback’ is very loosely defined in Australia, and doesn’t necessarily mean the raw, red wilderness; filled with kangaroos, crocs, and other wild Australian beasts. The term ‘Outback’ generally refers to everything outside of Australia’s big cities. Nearly the entire continent is the ‘Outback’, so to speak. In my mind, the premiere Outback experience has always been to see Uluru. Uluru (called ‘Ayers Rock’ by the first Europeans to discover it) is a gigantic red, sandstone monolith; an unmistakable icon of Australia that towers 1000 feet over the Outback and holds profound spiritual significance for the local aboriginal tribe, the Anangu. I budgeted two days to experience Uluru, and I packed as much as possible into the limited time that I had.

I awoke on my morning flight from Cairns just in time for the descent to Ayers Rock. My first sighting of the massive rock was a glimpse out the airplane windows from across the aisle. I quickly relocated so I could get a better view and as we descended I marveled that I was finally seeing Australia’s great natural wonder.

I began my Uluru experience by completing the ‘Base Walk’, a six-mile walk around the perimeter of the rock that introduces visitors to the soaring sandstone surface, as well as aboriginal rock art and sites of spiritual significance. To be perfectly honest, the various caves and indentations in the rock that hold significance to the Anangu don’t mean much to me, but the rock art was fascinating. A few trails branching off from the Base Walk led into small enclaves in which aborigines have left their stories on the rock over the years. Vibrant red, yellow, white, and black pigments covered the insides of the enclaves, and the many ancient paintings that were created on top of each other illustrated generations of life experiences of the local aborigines. It’s impossible to decipher the meaning of all the paintings, although the meaning of certain symbols is still understood; such as concentric circles depicting a waterhole, or the unmistakable icon for a feather or leaf. I hung around at each of the rock art locations until I felt I had fully appreciated what had been left by the ancient inhabitants, and finished my walk around Uluru with a small understanding of the Anangu culture.

My second day at Uluru was packed with outdoor activities. I began the day by riding 15 miles in a van from the Ayers Rock Resort to a sunrise viewing point. The sunrise was nice, but sunsets at Uluru are much better… and I have to interject here and say that a ridiculous number of people pay way too much money to experience an Uluru sunrise. For the cost of all my transportation in the area for two days (amounting to about 200 miles of driving altogether), hundreds of tourists choose instead to ride a giant tour bus to Uluru for just one sunrise… although with their “tour” a small, cold breakfast is included, as well as a metal camping stool to sit on.

Nearby Uluru is another rocky natural wonder: Kata Tjuta. Kata Tjuta is a series of giant rocks, and although none are as big as Uluru, the cluster of them are impressive enough to justify a visit. A 50 mile van ride took me out to the site, and I spent an hour hiking through a red, rocky gorge that was so similar to Southern Utah that I felt I could have been in Zions National Park. I talked with a young family from Wisconsin as I hiked, and learned that they are currently living in Perth while working as the American consul. The family has also lived in Bulgaria and Madagascar doing the same type of work. I couldn’t resist asking about the recent military takeover in the country in which a 30-year-old radio DJ was instated as president. The family told me they were there during the unrest, and that their daughter, Claire, was in the same elementary school class as the president’s young son.

Later in the day I headed to the airport for a helicopter ride over Uluru. Riding in a helicopter is always a bit expensive, but some of my favorite experiences while traveling have been unique ways of seeing famous sites from above (including an incredible helicopter ride over Victoria Falls last year). As the chopper lifted above the airport Uluru instantly came into view, and I loved getting higher and higher in the aircraft and seeing the rock spread out below me. To me the aerial view of the rock is entirely different than seeing it straight on from the ground. It’s obvious from the air that erosion from rainfall has created hundreds of tiny canyons in the rock where the water rushes down to the ground. I can only imagine how spectacular Uluru must be during a giant rainstorm. I would love to see towering waterfalls pour off the edge of the red sandstone. I may never actually see that; but even seeing the erosion from the waterfalls from the air was pretty amazing.

I spent the remainder of my afternoon at the Anangu Cultural Center near Uluru. The cultural center featured various artwork by Anangu people, as well as a description of ‘Tjukurpa’, the Anangu beliefs relating to the creation of the world, as well as a code of ethics and morals to guide everyday life. Tjukurpa stories are centered around legendary animals, such as ‘Kuniya’, the woma python, and ‘Liru’, the poisonous snake. The stories about the animals, or ‘Ancestral Beings’, explain the creation of all things in nature including specific physical characteristics of Uluru. Also, the Ancestral Beings are the primary figures in fables that teach basic morals values to the Anangu. The cultural center features several videos of Anangu ceremonies, and large exhibits describing how the people hunt for food and generally sustain life (I was surprised how much attention was given to describing the method by which Anangu women dig deep pits in the ground to search for honey ants). In an outdoor section of the museum an older Anangu couple demonstrated how to make aboriginal craftwork. Altogether the museum was interesting and a good use of time, but one hour spent there would have been more than enough. Unfortunately I was obligated to spend more than two hours at the museum because of the pick-up times by the bus, but it was still enjoyable, and a good opportunity to try to understand the Anangu culture.

Visiting Uluru has made me much more conscious of the tension between aboriginal people and European settlers. The relationship between aborigines and Australians is strikingly similar to the relationship between Native Americans and European settlers in the United States. Aborigines feel they have been dominated and pushed off of land that is rightfully theirs, and many Australians feel that aborigines are susceptible to alcoholism and crime.. At Uluru the primary area of tension is the issue of whether or not climbing of the rock should be permitted. The Anangu people claim that the rock has such great spiritual significance that climbing it is an act of extreme disrespect. Australians, however, feel that the rock belongs to everyone on the continent, and some even claim that the Anangu didn’t consider the rock to be sacred until Europeans started climbing it. I had a hard time finding a convincing, intellectual argument supporting either opinion, but I’ve gathered a couple of quotes that illustrate the situation well.

First, a quote from a respected Anangu:

“That’s a really important sacred thing that you are climbing… You shouldn’t climb. It’s not the real thing about this place. The real thing is listening to everything… And maybe that makes you a bit sad. But that’s what we have to say. We are obliged by Tjukurpa to say.”

… and now a quote from my Australian helicopter pilot (spoken with a thick Australian accent):

“Sure. Go ahead. Climb it. Spit on it if you want to. I don’t believe in all that spiritual bullsh*t.”

It turned out that strong winds at the summit of the rock caused the park rangers to close the climb for the duration of my stay, so I didn’t have to make the choice whether to climb… although if I could climb the rock I would. I’m a little bit torn because I wouldn’t want thousands of tourists trampling all over historic Mormon pioneer trails that I consider to be sacred, but at the same time, I’m not terribly convinced by the Anangu argument. To sum up my feelings on the matter, the aborigine point of view is about as well-thought as the comment by my helicopter pilot.

Uluru is famous for its changing colors. During the daytime I noticed the rock change from bright red to pale orange, to a burnt brown color, then to a purplish-red color at dusk. I found that the best time to watch the colors change is at sunset. Both days at Uluru I watched from a distance as the sun lowered below the horizon behind me. The rock is incredible at every time of day, but sunsets really do the place justice. To complete my outback experience I had the ‘Outback BBQ’ at the Ayers Rock Resort – a meal including crocodile meat, emu meat, and kangaroo meat, all self-barbecued at an outdoor grill. I stuffed myself with the exotic tasting meats along with corn-on-the-cob, potato salad and coleslaw. It may not have been the ‘Mick Dundee’ Australian experience, but it was the ‘Mike Spendlove’ experience and everything I hoped to experience in the Outback.

Great Barrier Reef

I’ve wanted to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef for years. Since getting my scuba diving certification in Thailand in 2006 I’ve become fascinated with finding the best scuba diving sites across the globe. As far as I’m concerned, the ‘Holy Grail’ of scuba diving is ‘Isla del Coco’, an island about 300 miles west of Costa Rica, a place I’d love to visit someday. However, the Great Barrier Reef has always ranked high on my list, if only because it’s one of the most famous destinations in Australia.

Before coming to Australia I researched a few different ways of visiting the Great Barrier Reef, and I finally decided on spending a three days on a ‘live-aboard boat’, a sort of small cruise ship that is permanently anchored at the reef that serves as a home base for scuba divers. Wednesday morning I took a ferry from Cairns out to ‘OceanQuest’, a live-aboard boat operated by ‘Deep Sea Divers Den’, a dive shop in Cairns. OceanQuest has 22 cabins, a lounge, a dining room, and, of course, a large dive deck at the back of the ship from which divers suit up and drop into the ocean. Three days and two nights on OceanQuest is just enough time to complete 12 dives lasting about 45 minutes each (although I confess I only made 10 dives – on two occasions jet lag overpowered my desire to scuba and I slept through the dive). Altogether the OceanQuest experience was fantastic, and was a lot more upscale than I anticipated, considering I chose one of the cheapest live-aboard options available in Cairns.

Highlights during the ten dives included the following:

- Holding an ‘Elephant Trunk Fish’ and posing in front of clown fish and anemone during a small photo shoot with an underwater photographer.

- Floating by countless giant patches of ‘Elephant Ear Coral’, a type of coral that is smooth and ruffled, like an elephant ear might be if it were bunched up.

- Passing innumerable ‘Parrot Fish’, brightly colored purple, yellow, red, and green creatures that are named for their vibrant appearance.

- Discovering several ‘Lion Fish’ – orange and white striped fish with many long, bony fins – in a patch of coral directly beneath the boat.

- Finding giant clams, about three feet in diameter, scattered intermittently across the ocean floor.

- Peering down into the water from the deck of the ship to see about thirty baited sharks swimming below, then dropping into the water only minutes later.

- Diving at night in pitch-black water, discovering that the reef is lifeless after dark when the fish have hidden and gone to sleep, and watching a few giant, hideous ‘Trelly Fish’ hunt for food beneath the long, narrow beams of our underwater flashlights.

- Swimming through a tiny crevasse between two giant rocks and just barely squeezing myself through an opening at the other end… 60 feet beneath the surface of the ocean.

- Watching an evil-looking moray eel slither out from inside his rocky home to peer out as my diving partner and I swam by.

- Chasing down a few sea turtles about five feet in diameter, and watching from above as they glided effortlessly above the reef as an eagle would glide above a forest.

- Following another giant sea turtle through a canyon of coral into his home: a rocky cave at the sandy bottom of the reef.

Needless to say, my time aboard the OceanQuest was well spent. I also got to know several interesting dive partners, including a Colombian software-developer currently living in Qatar, two young medical doctors from the United States , a Japanese civil engineer, and a couple from Seattle who happen to be LDS and have three kids at BYU.

Finally, my description of the OceanQuest experience wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the food. I ate like a king aboard the OceanQuest. Considering that the boat is permanently moored at the reef, all food has to be brought in by a ferry daily, and the meals are prepared by crew members who are dive instructors first and chefs second, I was very impressed with the cuisine. Every meal tasted great, but my favorites were the barbecued ribs Wednesday night, tasty grilled hamburgers for lunch on Thursday, then breaded ‘chicken schnitzel’ for dinner the same day.

I could write for hours about my three days at the reef, but I think I’ve summed up most of the highlights. It feels great to have been spoiled for a few days, and it feels great to have finally experienced the Great Barrier Reef.

Getting to Cairns

Getting to Australia was a wild, exciting, and very odd experience.

WILD: Missing my connecting flight to Sydney by 8 minutes, rushing from terminal to terminal trying to find another flight that Delta would pay for, and finally settling on spending 24 hours in Los Angeles after my best efforts failed.

EXCITING: Discovering that Los Angeles has one of the greatest art galleries in the United States; ‘The Getty Center’, enjoying paintings by Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Degas, and Rembrandt, and riding a smelly public bus for 2 hours back to LAX.

VERY ODD: Sitting for 15 hours during my flight to Sydney next to a friendly 70-year-old man… who apparently was attracted to me and wanted me to take a shower at his hotel room (I won’t go into details).

It suffices to say that the past 48 hours have been an incredible roller-coaster ride. I finally arrived in Sydney at 9 AM this morning and rushed into the city to get a taste of Australia before leaving on a flight to Cairns this afternoon. As my train pulled into Circular Quay station downtown, I peered out the window towards the coast and saw the iconic roof of the Sydney Opera House barely come into view from behind a few buildings. The city was unbelievably quiet this morning, and I began my day by walking along a wide red-brick boardwalk across from the Opera House. Until today the Sydney Opera House was one of the last few truly iconic world sites that I hadn’t visited, and it was a thrill to see it in real life after viewing it so many times in two-dimensional pictures online. At the end of my trip I’ll spend three days in Sydney and get a chance to watch a legitimate opera in the Opera House, but until then it was nice just to see it from the outside.

One of my favorite things to do in big cities is to find the highest point from which I can get a decent view from above, then spend an hour or so enjoying the skyline and getting my bearings straight. The premier view in Sydney is from ‘Pylon Lookout’, a viewing platform at the top of one of the South pylons of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The Opera House looks fantastic from every angle, but viewing it from above was a great new way to experience the architectural wonder. Nearly every picture I’ve seen of the Opera House is taken from across Sydney Harbor, so finding new views of it in real life is especially exciting. The interior of the pylon also features a few well-presented exhibits documenting the history of the bridge, although I confess I rushed through them to find one last view of the Opera House before heading back to the airport.

I love the building in New York in which I worked for American Express last summer. It’s literally across the street from the World Trade Center, the name of the complex, ‘World Financial Center’, makes me feel more professional than I probably am, and the New York City Lonely Planet guide even lists it as a tourist attraction. Perhaps my favorite thing about the building, though, are the gigantic murals surrounding the elevator banks in the lobby. As the world’s largest travel agency, it suits American Express well to have a few great travel murals. One is of the financial district in Manhattan lit up at night, another depicts the Hong Kong skyline and parts of the city’s Chinatown, a third features a beautiful panorama of Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, and the final mural shows the Sydney Harbor, with the Opera House prominently in view beneath the Sydney Harbor Bridge. I had to find that view.

A walk across the Harbor Bridge took me to North Sydney, where I wandered aimlessly for ten minutes before finally asking for directions. A long, meandering walk took me north of the harbor, then along a trail leading past Sydney’s famous ‘Luna Park’ amusement park and finally to a ferry station on the coast. That was the view. I took several pictures from the ferry station, trying to line them up just like the incredible mural at American Express Headquarters. While at the ferry station I realized that I had now seen all four locations of the great murals in real life. I don’t generally like to ‘check boxes’ when I travel, but it’s still exciting to be able to relate to such distinguished locations.

Dinner tonight was a giant slab of beef and some Australian home-style potatoes at a lively joint in Cairns. I’ve never thought much about what Australian food is, but I would definitely enjoy eating a dinner like that every night for the next two weeks. With my belly full, I got a couple of giant scoops of ice cream at Baskin Robbins and walked along the coast back to my hotel. As much as I enjoy having ‘wild’ and ‘exciting’ experiences (and the occasional ‘very odd’ experience), it’s great to finally be starting my Australian adventure in Cairns.