Project 60 Number 24

Yup, we're back in Oz, or rather, taking up the story, and Number 24 is riding The Ghan.

I can't remember when or how I first heard about The Ghan but from the moment I did I wanted to travel on it. It coves the length of  Australia from North to South (or South to North if you prefer) and we joined it in Darwin and went south to Adelaide.  More info here if you're interested

We were picked up from our hotel in Darwin and taken to the terminal and I'm not ashamed to say that I had tears pricking in my eyes when I first laid eyes on the train. It was partly actually seeing it in the 'flesh', partly realising that I really really was going to ride on it after wanting to for so long, and partly the excitement of the thought of watching Australia go past my window for 3 days and being able to see all the changes in the landscape. Not contributing to the tears, but certainly to the feeling of excitement was knowing we were going to be in a properly functioning air conditioned environment for most of the time too.

 

So, we had our own compartment which looked like this. The seats converted into a double bed at night. (Not magically of their own accord, we had a steward who did that sort of thing. Embarrassing really. I honestly think we'd have been more comfortable doing it ourselves, but that wasn't an option.)

 

It had its own smart,  if rather small, en-suite shower room.

 

and obviously themed designer accessories

 

the food was what I would have called, as a child, Dead Posh. Sadly this meant that I didn't like a lot of it, but was proud of myself for trying it, On the plate below the dark meat is kangaroo, and the white disc is crocodile. Couldn't eat much of either, but I gave them a go.

 

And whenever we had an excursion off the train we came back to find this waiting for us. We didn't know what it was until almost the end of the trip but it was cold and refreshing and very welcome each time.

 

 

Turns out it was simply iced green tea.

 

Project 60 - Number 23

Choux pastry.

If I wanted to by funny I could just bake another forty things that I've never baked before but although that would get me nearer to sixty a bit faster than I am currently going, it wouldn't really be in the spirit of the whole project. There were however a few baking things that I wanted to try hence the jam and marmalade and muffins and ice cream - and now choux buns. And two more coming down the track.

 

I have to say that I'm a tad disappointed with the appearance of these as they did not puff up but stayed fairly flat. I put this down to the mixture being a bit too wet, and I put that down to the fact that the OH always insists on buying large eggs and most of my recipe books use medium ones. It's not usually a problem but obviously choux pastry is less forgiving than creamed cake mixture.

 

That said they smelt and felt and tasted like proper choux buns so from every point of view bar the visual (ha! did you see what I did there?) they were a success.

 

So will I make choux pastry again? Well, not next week, but one of these days I might buy myself some medium sized eggs and have a go at chocolate eclairs.

Hype, Hype, or The Crocodiles of Kakadu

For all my strictures about tackiness, and although I cling to my belief that building a hotel in the shape of a millennia old killing machine is the height thereof, I have to say that in every other respect the Crocodile Hotel in Kakadu was excellent. Efficient friendly staff, lovely rooms, great food and room service. We must all have looked totally wiped out when we arrived as we were given complimentary bottles of iced water the moment we hit the check in desk. And luckily the air con was efficient too. Have I mentioned at all that Kakadu was hot and humid? (waves flag to indicate joke)

 

Anyway Day 2 found us repeating a lot of what we had done on Day 1. Aboriginal art and a boat trip. It also exposed what a rubbish guide Ray was in a big way. For some reason known only to himself he swapped the itinerary round so that we went to see the rock art in the morning. When I say morning I mean at about 11.00 a.m. when the sun was getting towards its hottest. We had a 2 km walk to get to the site and when we got almost there and I realised that the last bit was going to be a steep scramble upwards I decided to go on strike and when everyone else moved off I stayed put. Ray did not notice this because he never bothered to count his passengers to make sure he had everyone with him, and he also showed a disturbing tendency to walk well ahead of everyone else, even the quickest of us, without looking back. I think he thought he was on an expedition into the interior with Burke and Wills. He was wrong.

 

They were ages and the sun and flies got troublesome but I was standing in a pretty enough place with lots of birdsong and so on, so I didn't get fed up. Then I heard exclamations of alarm (no it wasn't a crocodile, or even a snake) and the sound of slipping scree and a call of pain....turned out one of the group had slipped and fallen (possibly trying to get away from some of Ray's inaccurate droning about the art they were looking at) and broken her ankle. Two of the other members of the group carried her down the rest of the hill and towards where I had stayed. Several others discussed where it was best to put her down so that she would be safe, comfortable and in the shade, someone lent her a hat, someone else supplied paracetamol and water, a third provided a fan. Ray told her he had called the Park Rangers who would be along in their jeep in about 20 minutes and then began his route march back to our bus without a backward glance.

 

Until I wrote this down I had forgotten quite how angry this made me.

 

In the afternoon we went on another boat trip. This one guaranteed us a view of crocodiles, by the simple expedient of feeding the things. There was a lot of talk about how they recognise all the crocs on their piece of the river, make sure the food is evenly distributed and don't overfeed so that they don't become dependent. To which I say a rude word. They are there to make a quick buck by exploiting animals just as much as if they were running a circus. That said it was exciting to see the crocodiles up close, because for all the hype about not going nearer than 30 feet to the edges of any body of water throughout the region for fear of being pounced upon and dragged away by the crocodiles, this was the only occasion on which we actually saw them.

 

A few, not vey good, photos

 

 

So this was about 7.00 am. Came out of our room, lifted up camera to take photo and such was the heat it had already fogged up. Nice effect though.

 

A crocodile after Easy Meat.

 

And ditto

 

Crocodile River (not that it was actually called that)

 

some of Kakadu is fertile flood plain - they imported buffalo to raise in it. And tried growing rice. Neither venture was a huge success.

 

And here's a happy thing, a poster of all the different kinds of mosquito you are liable to find in Australia.

 

Then it was back to Darwin and farewell to Ray (thank goodness) just for the night, before we got ready to be picked up and taken off to board The Ghan!

 

Kakadu

Before launching into our adventures in Kakadu I should say that one of the very few consolations about our time in the NT was the fruit. I have never tasted such delicious melon and mango as we had there and don't expect to again unless we venture once more into tropical climes. Which we're really not in a hurry to do.

So we had booked a two day trip to Kakadu and with hindsight one would have been enough since days one and two were very similar. Which is not to say that it wasn't all weird and wonderful, but honestly one would have been enough.

Lets get the bad stuff over with first. We were in a small coach/minibus thing and had a combined driver and guide called Ray. He was rubbish. Actually it was worse than that, he was rubbish and rascist as well, which was sad since he was our only source of information about the original aboriginal culture of the region. He really did claim to be 'good friends with some aborigines'. Need I say more...?

 

 It was a lovely day and we saw many interesting and unusual things, but the subtext was that really it was too hot to enjoy very much of it. My tip for Kakadu, if like me you get very hot and bothered by heat,  would be to go when it's cooler. As I did get very hot and bothered I was horrified to discover at the end of the day that we were about to spend the night in a hotel that had been built shaped like a crocodile. Could anything be more tacky? Of which more anon.....

 

But as most of enjoying Kakadu was to do with the flora and fauna,  let's have some pictures.

 

 

Boat Trip

Park Ticket

 

Ubiquitous Gum growing in water

This made me think of the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader where they sail so far east the sea becomes just a mass of lilies.

See I did know what this bird was called when we first came back but it's been so long I've forgotten!

Pretty Flowers



Rock Art



 

 

 

 

 



Back to Australia

No, sadly not literally, just taking up the story of our trip again. I'd just about finished our week in Sydney and next up was Darwin.

I retain no memory of the flight from Sydney to Darwin, except for the lady who sat on the far side of the OH and refused all the flight refreshments bar the ice cream Bounty Bars: she managed six of those. Don't know how she did it myself.

 

Darwin was hot and humid. Consequently we saw very little of it, although I did manage one very non specific photo of a street corner

 

 

and a sunset

 

The sunsets were beautiful in Darwin and not just because once the sun had gone down it got cooler. We did very little in Darwin as it was just too hot and humid. We did stagger along a street in search of very high factor sun lotion and I saw something I had never seen before and frankly hope never to see again. Sweat was running down my hair and falling off the end like rain. Yeuch!

 

My friend in NSW has a daughter who lives in Darwin so the day after we arrived we went out with her and her husband for a very  nice lunch. The OH had barramundi which I did try, as I was determined to give stuff a go, but although it didn't taste horrible it had a very strange soapy texture and I couldn't have eaten a whole plate of it. Still I tried. After lunch we went back to see their new house and have a cup of tea. Houses are horribly horribly expensive in Darwin because they all have to be tornado proof which adds lots and lots to the building cost. We didn't quite jump in their pool but it was tempting. I do admire the two of them; Darwin doesn't have a climate either of them was brought up in and the heat and humidity are very draining. If you weren't born to them how  anyone can actually work in those conditions is beyond me, but they both do. To add insult to injury the sea and beaches are beautiful but you can't venture in because of the ubiquitous salt water crocodile, which is very ugly and very dangerous. Our time in the NT was full of warnings about not going too close to any body of water lest one leap out and drag us away.

 

Next up, a two day trip to Kakadu National Park.

 

Postscript

Following yesterday's post I have found a YouTube video of Andy Cant playing In Remembrance and here it is

Well worth a listen, and you also get some great views of the Cathedral. You will also get a glimpse of Call Me Dave, but it is only very brief. You could blink.