Like a kangaroo

I feel like hoppin' up and down like a kangaroo

I feel like hoppin' up and down

The next stop on my trip after Uluru was Canberra. I had encountered the same response from every Australian I had told about my itinerary when I said Canberra was on it. They had invariably said “Why are you going there?”. I wasn’t sure why the Australians had such a low opinion of their own capital city but maybe I was about to find out. My trip from Uluru to Canberra involved a plane, a train and an automobile. The flight from Uluru to Sydney was quiet. I was sat on the aisle seat, the window seat of my row was occupied. The doors had been closed indicating everyone was on board and row across from me was empty. As the stewardess passed down the aisle I asked if I could move seats across to the other side. She said that I would need to wait until after take off as the weight distribution of the plane would be thrown off if I moved now. I wasn’t sure how much she thought I weighed but I was certain that even my large frame moving a few feet across the aisle would not be that significant compared to the weight of the 737 we were flying in. I moved after take off and stayed there for the landing too, hoping that my seat change didn’t throw the weight distribution off that much that the pilots crashed into the runway. We all survived the smooth landing and I was given some reassurance that my weight relative to a passenger jet was still within acceptable bounds. I had a window seat for the train ride from Sydney to Canberra so I didn’t have to worry about my weight unbalancing the train and from the train station I got a taxi, the driver not making any reference to my choice of seats for the journey.

View from Mount Ainslie

My Canberra hosts were Gavin and Rob, an English couple who had recently moved over to Canberra. They were friends of Greg, Gay Number 1 in New York. He had seen that I was planning on going to Canberra, had sent them a message and they had agreed to put me up for a few days. I had not met Rob before but I had met Gavin a couple of weeks previously in Brisbane. We had been out for dinner and had got on well in so far as the offer of a place to stay hadn’t been taken back after dinner. The taxi dropped me off outside Rob’s office, where he was waiting just inside reception for me. We chatted for a while as we waited for Gavin to finish work and come and pick us up. I gave Rob a very condensed highlights version of my travels so far, the same one I had given Gavin in Brisbane, to get them both on the same page. Once back at theirs I was shown to my room and told that a drink would be waiting once I had got myself settled in. My settling in consisted of putting my bag down and unzipping my suitcase so I was settled in fairly quickly and soon enjoying a welcome drink with my two hosts. We had dinner at a Thai place called Baan Latsamy to round off my first evening in the capital.

The next morning I was awake and up early. Rob and Gavin had told me to make myself at home so I headed for the kitchen in search of coffee. I found that everything I needed had been neatly laid out on the counter near the kettle – coffee, sugar, a mug and a spoon. They were clearly organised gays. Once everyone was up and ready I was given the itinerary for the day and asked if it met with my approval (which it did). We set off to our first stop – Mount Ainslie and the look out spot over the city so that I could get my bearings and a rough idea of the layout of the city. We parked up and headed to take in the views over the city. It was a great spot to see the whole of the city, which, was rather small. Rob did a great job of pointing out the various landmarks to me. He did such a good job that several other people who were up there also listened to him. A couple of Australians even asked him questions about what certain things were. He made a great tour guide.

Like a kangaroo 

From Mount Ainslie we went to Mount Stromlo, another spot with good views over the city but also a large number of burnt out telescopes, the remnants of a devastating fire 9 years before. We continued our space theme by heading out to the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex. On the way in was a model of the Voyager 2 rocket with a plaque announcing it was there to commemorate the “encounter with Uranus”. I got the giggles. Rob and Gavin came to see what I was laughing at. They both walked away shaking their heads. After a look round the exhibits we had a coffee and a sandwich sat out in the sun before heading off to the Namadgi National Park for a bit of a hike. On the way over we saw some exotic roadkill including a huge wombat and a kangaroo. Thankfully we got to see some live kangaroos on our hike. Gavin was great at spotting some of the smaller wildlife that dotted our route up to American Hat and back. It was a great hike and by the time we returned I was ready for a quick snooze before we got ready to head out for dinner and drinks.

After dinner at Wagamama (a lovely little reminder of being back home) sat outside in the warm evening air (not so much a reminder of being back home) we decided that as it was Saturday evening we should go try out the Canberra gay scene – all one bar of it. Gavin and Rob had also yet to experience it too so we were all virgins as far as the Canberra gay scene was concerned. We made our way to The Cube, which had apparently recently undergone a revamp. The bar was a decent size, with plenty of seating and a small dancefloor off to one side. The music was fairly loud (although I realise saying this might just make me old) and it was a little on the empty side although it wasn’t even 11pm yet. We got our drinks and then found a spot to sit and judge people. It was another reminder of what it had been like growing up in Sheffield where the gay scene had not been that much bigger. Everyone had to go to the same place – guys and girls, young and old. I suspected that the relatively small size of the gay scene and the city meant that most people would already know each other. It had been the same in Sheffield – you couldn’t start dating anyone without half the gay population knowing about it or pointing out who had already slept with them.

By the end of the evening we had reached a couple of conclusions about the Canberra gay scene. The first was that the bar was not as bad as we had all been expecting both in terms of fellow patrons, music and décor. The second was that no matter where you are there is a strong chance that there will be a group of young straight girls in a gay bar.  Finally we were pleased, for different reasons, we didn’t have to rely on the Canberra gay scene to meet future partners. Rob and Gavin already had each other and I was only in town for a weekend.

“I feel like hoppin' up and down like a kangaroo” 
Lyrics from Once a Year Day from the musical The Pajama Game 

Big-ass rock

Let's find a rock, I mean a big-ass rock

Let's find a rock

My time in Melbourne was at an end. I had done my goodbyes the previous night, as I was off early to get to the airport. I was on the first tram into central Melbourne to get the bus to the airport for my flight to Uluru, via Sydney. I arrived at the bus station just as a bus was pulling out. I had to wait 15 minutes for the next one. I knew that I would still arrive at the airport in plenty of time but my mental itinerary was now thrown out. At that hour in the morning and without a coffee to wake me up I struggled to work out what time I would arrive. In the end it was enough time to clear security and get some breakfast before boarding the first flight. The flight to Sydney was not quite long enough – no sooner had I nodded off for a nap I was being woken up for landing. I had a window seat for the Sydney to Uluru leg and it seemed like we were flying over nothing but red dust for a long time. The place didn’t look completely barren though, which surprised me a little. There were plenty of trees dotted across the landscape too. As we came in to land I got a glimpse of Uluru/Ayer’s Rock. From the air, with nothing else around it, it really stood out. I could also make out the resort, a tiny speck of civilisation in the middle of nowhere. It seemed very artificial and out of place.

We landed at the tiny airport and after a little while the doors were opened for us to disembark. Stepping out of the door onto the stairs the heat hit me. It had been cool and drizzly when I had left Melbourne so I was wearing jeans and a jumper.  It was a little warm in them to say the least. At the bottom of the stairs I stepped to one side to take my jumper off. As I pulled it over my head my t-shirt started to go with it. Thankfully I had been one of the last people off the plane so there was only the air stewardess stood at the top of the stairs there to witness my impromptu striptease. Having rescued my t-shirt from inside my jumper and put it back on I headed into the airport. The airport was very small and there was hardly any wait for the luggage. Outside the airport was a fleet of air-conditioned coaches waiting to take everyone to the resort. I was staying at a place called The Lost Camel and was directed to the first coach for the short journey across to the resort.  

Uluru at sunrise

Once I was all checked in I had a little walk around the resort. There was a supermarket, a couple of shops, a café and a takeaway place called Ayer’s Wok. I did a little shopping at the supermarket and made myself some lunch before heading out for a walk to one of the viewing points. There was a free shuttle bus that ran a route between all the different hotels and the look out point but I decided I would take a walk. I had a map of the resort so knew roughly were I was headed. It was a little further than I expected but I found the spot and got my first proper look at the Rock in the distance. I was looking forward to my tours the following day when I would get to see it from a lot closer. After staying a while taking in the view I set off back to the hotel. It looked like there was a small track leading from the look out point across the scrub. I took a few steps along it and then thought I heard something moving in the grass up ahead. I promptly turned back and took the long route along the road back to the resort just to be on the safe side. Once back I had a swim in the pool to cool down, had some dinner and an early night.

I mean a big-ass rock

Viewing platform at Uluru

I had booked to go on the sunrise tour, which involved a 4:45am pick up. I am not the best in a morning so my alarm going off at 4:15am was not a welcome sound. I resisted the urge to snooze for 5 minutes knowing that I would not wake back up for a couple of hours and would miss the trip. I managed a shower and a strong coffee before joining a couple of other bleary-eyed people in the reception. Our coach arrived and we boarded. The coach was already about half full and we made one more stop. I suspected the final hotel was the nicest one at the resort; they got the last pick up so they got to spend longest in bed. I had a quick look round at my fellow trippers on the coach. It could easily be mistaken for a coach taking us to a casting call for a remake of Cocoon.

We drove for about half an hour or so through total darkness until we arrived at the sunrise viewing area. There was coffee waiting for us and I needed some. I grabbed a cup, and finished it rather quickly, heading off to get a good spot on the viewing platform before it filled up. The advantage of being on a trip with a slightly older crowd meant that I got to the viewing platform quicker than they did. I tried a couple of spots before settling on a place with the view I wanted for my photos. The sun was slowly coming up, behind us, Uluru set out in front of us. It was stunning to watch it slowly change colour as the sun rose. Despite the large number of people on the viewing platform it was remarkably peaceful. It was another bit of the trip where I wished there was someone with me to share it with. Having got some photos I went for a bit of a wander, getting a great photo looking back at all the people still up on the viewing platform. It was spectacular and worth the early start. Once the sun was up we headed back to the bus. The rest of the trip saw us take a walk around the base of the rock before a quick stop at the cultural centre.

  

Kata Tjuta at sunset

Having been dropped back at the resort I had time for a snooze before grabbing lunch and getting myself sorted out for an afternoon tour to Kata Tjuta, the other large rock formation in the area. It was going to be quite a hike and we had been told that we needed to carry two litres of water for it. They were pretty strict too. I had two 750ml bottles with me but they made me get some more. On the drive out our guide, Adam, explained that everyone would walk to the 1st lookout point. From there, if the temperature was below 36 Celsius, then we could walk to the 2nd lookout if we wanted. The guide explained that it was a 5km round trip from the 1st to the 2nd lookout. Adam told us that it had been above 36 for the last two weeks and that meant it was too dangerous to take people up to the 2nd lookout. We were lucky, it was only 34 degrees so we could do the walk. About half the group opted to do the walk, the other half returning to the coach for a driving tour.

The hike to the 2nd lookout was tough. I was pleased they had made me get two litres of water as I got through most of it. I estimated that if I took my pants off and wrung them out then I would find about a litre of the water I had drunk. The views from the 2nd lookout point were worth the effort though and on the way back I got my first glimpse of a kangaroo out in the wild. I wasn’t quick enough to get a good photo of it though. Post hike we waited for the coach to return to pick us up to take us to a spot to watch the sunset. There was some liquid refreshment waiting for us at the spot where we got to watch the sunset. I got myself some wine and grabbed one of the little folding seats and found a spot away from the main group to wait for the sun to set. A woman spotted me sat on my own and came to sit near me. She said that she had seen the size of my camera (not a euphemism) and had decided that I obviously knew what I was doing and how to pick a good spot for photos. We chatted for a while as the sun set. It was another spectacular sight and it rounded off a great day. The drive back was almost in silence and even though it wasn’t that late I was ready for bed when I got back.

“Let's find a rock, I mean a big-ass rock” 
Lyrics from Big-Ass Rock from the musical The Full Monty