Whispering Well & Arriving in Adelaide 12/07/16

We started the day by briefly stopping in Hawka again for fuel. We then drove for a few hours to a town called Clare.

The weather was terrible and it was hailing by the time we got there. We didn’t want to go out in the rain so we ended up at a really great bakery for some lunch. 

We got back on the bus after lunch and drove to the Whispering Wall, which is a huge dam in a place called Gawler. If you whisper from one side of the wall, the sound travels, so the people on the other side of the wall can here. The guys went one side and the girls the other which was funny, especially when the two new guys on our tour refused to talk to us! Luckily Ricky was there so we could hear him. 

We then drove to Adelaide which is where the Topdeck tour ended for me. A few others are continuing on to Melbourne but I wanted to spend a few days looking around the city.

When I got to Adelaide, I had booked a mixed dorm but ended up in a room with all guys, who were a bit creepy. So I ended up swapping to an all girls dorm which made me feel a lot better. 

We said goodbye to a few people and then Kayla, Kate and I tried to go to the National Wine Centre. The website said it closed at 9pm, but when we got there we were told they had closed at 6.30pm as there wasn’t anyone there, which was really annoying,

So we ended up going back to the hostel and getting a kebab. When we got back to the hostel I caught up with Kath and my mum, and then went to bed. 

Kanyaka Homestead, Flinders Ranges & Parachilna 11/7/16

The first stop after breakfast was some ruins called Kanyaka Homestead. They reminded me of English Castles but on a much smaller scale. 

We then headed to Flinders Ranges National Park for an 8k hike to Wangara lookout. The scenery was stunning, We walked through the park and climbed to a lookout point. It was so windy at the top we didn’t stay up there for too long!

Throughout the park we saw lots of wild kangaroos. One had a baby joey which was really cute.

We had lunch in the park and then started driving to a little town called Blinman. It was famous for its quondam pie. I really wanted to try some, but didn’t want to take the risk I’d be allergic to it. We also stopped at a great lookout point for photos!

We then drove to Parachilna, for our last night of the tour. We were literally staying in tin sheds, although they were much nicer than I expected on the inside. I was sharing with Kayla.We had dinner at a bar there, where I got to eat Kangaroo, Emu and Camel. The Kangaroo was definitely my favourite. 

Whilst I was there I tried to sort out my shark dive. I was planning to fly to Port Lincoln on Friday so I could dive over the weekend. I was gutted to find out that all the dives for the week had been cancelled and the ones that had gone ahead had not seen any sharks. It’s exactly the same as what happened to me twice in South Africa.

I didn’t want to fly all the way there and not see any sharks so I decided to abandon that plan and head straight to Melbourne. I was keen to catch up with everyone from tour and am looking into coming back to South Australia later in my trip.

After dinner we went straight to bed. We didn’t have to leave until 8am, which was a late lie in for me after all the 5am starts.

Kangaroo Sanctuary 10/07/16

I slept surprisingly well considering I hated being underground. Our first stop this morning was a Kangaroo Sanctuary. The sanctuary rescued kangaroos that had been injured in fights or road accidents and helped them to be released back into the wild.

They were really friendly and came right up to us. We also got to see a baby joey kangaroo called Fergal. Some tourists had found him on the side of the road so brought him in. He was so young he couldn’t stand up yet and had to be bottle fed every 4 hours. Super cute!

Whilst I was there I bought a gorgeous print of Uluru. Another ridiculous item that I will need to carry in my suitcase!

Most of the day was spend driving as we tried to get to the South Coast. We stopped at a few roadhouses on the way including one in a town called Hawka.

We got to Port Augusta it seemed really strange to be back in an area with an actual town. We had been used to really tiny places in the dessert with red dirt everywhere for the previous two weeks. It made a change to see ocean for the first time since Darwin.

 We spent around 45 minutes in Port Augusta before heading to Quorn, which was again back to being in the middle of nowhere. I shared a room with Kate and Kayla. We had dinner there, and after quite a long phone call home, I went to bed.

South Australia & Coober Pedy 09/07/16

It was really strange waking up this morning sharing a room with different people. We had to be up early to meet our new group and tour guide PJ.

We had a long drive to get to Coober Pedy. En route, we stopped at the border sign between the Northern Territory and South Australia. It was quite sad to be leaving the NT as I really enjoyed my time there. I managed to get a photo with my standing in both states.

One thing I did find unusual was that you aren’t allowed to carry fruit between state borders due to fruit flies. So we had to throw away all of our fruit. On the sign there was a picture of the Stuart Desert Pea, which is the state flower.

We got to Coober Pedy after a few hours, which is famous worldwide for mining opals. We stopped to get a photo of the sign but it's so cold we didn’t want to be off the bus for too long!

Our accommodation was an underground bunker which I really didn’t like. Most people in Coober Pedy live underground as the temperature gets so hot during the summers that it is cooler down there. I hate the idea of being underground so I spent as much time outside as possible. There was also a mouse in the bunker which some of the other girls found.

We had a mining tour booked for the evening but I decided to skip it. Instead I looked around the museum and at the opal jewelry. We all got to watch a film about how opals are mined and the history behind their discovery in Australia. Then we were shown how they mine opals, and turn them into jewelry. I bought a gorgeous opal ring as a souvenir. I especially wanted one as it’s also my birthstone.

We went out to a pizza bar in Coober Pedy for dinner. It had the biggest pizzas I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t eat any, but they did look good.

After dinner we went back to the bunker. I gradually got used to it and managed to fall asleep but I didn't like it all. Being really tired definitely helped. 

Casino Goodbyes :( 08/07/16

After Kings Canyon, we had to drive back to Alice Springs which was around 4 hours. I was sat at the back of the bus with Kath and Emily, so we spent the time napping and chatting. We went through our highlights and relived the trip which was really nice. 

This was our last day together as a full group before we all split to either go home or join a different tour group. Emily and Kath were both going home, which I was really gutted about :( When we got back to Alice Springs, we dropped Kath and Anna off as they were staying at different hotels. It was so strange saying bye, even though we would be seeing them both in a few hours. 

The rest of us then went back to the Alice Springs Ibis to get ready for our last group dinner. Kath and Anna met us at the Ibis and then we had a birthday cake for Shannon. We then got a taxi to the Lasseters Casino, which was famous from Priscilla Queen of the Desert. We ate at a restaurant there called the Juicy Rump. 

We had dinner, dranks lots of wine and got a few cocktails. I got one which was bright blue, which I tried to convince Kath to try it but she wasn't keen! We got a few group photos and some with the compulsory duck face that had now become tradition, 

Then it was time to say goodbye to most of the group L A few of us were carrying on to Adelaide but loads of people left. We also had to say goodbye to Lisa, who was moving on to a different tour group.

It was really really sad. Even though we had only been together for a couple of weeks, we had got really close as a group. Emily, Kath and I ended up staying after everyone else had left. We went into the casino and played a few slot machines, but it was hard for us to cheer up We didn’t want to say goodbye to each other L Eventually we had to and after some tears, we went back to our hotels :(

Kings Canyon 08/07/16

I was quite relieved when Lisa kicked our swag to wake us up in the morning. I didn’t feel as if I had slept at all. I kept waking up throughout the night as it was so cold. I had two pairs of thermals, two hoodies and my coat but I was still frozen. 

We were up really early as we were hiking Kings Canyon to watch the sunrise. Lisa told us she preferred to do the hike in the dark so we couldn’t see what was in front of us. To get to the top of the Canyon we had to climb 500 steps, which was also known as ‘Heart Attack Hill’ , due to the amount of people that had collapsed attempting to climb it. Halfway there a few of us wanted to turn back but we carried on and I’m so glad we did because the views were incredible.

The sun rise was gorgeous with the sky literally divided into different layers. 

The hike was quite dangerous, as there were lots of edges with huge drops below. Lisa told us a story about a backpacker who had died trying to get a selfie pretending to fall off the rock. We had to make sure we always stayed at least 2m from the edge.

We climbed to a high lookout point to watch the full sun rise and took some group photos. It was Shannon's birthday so we all sung happy birthday at the top of the rock, 

We walked across the entire Canyon and then climbed down to a waterhole known as the ‘Garden of Eden’. 

We then had to walk up another huge set of stairs to get back to the bus, where most us napped for the long journey back to Alice Springs. 

Sleeping in Swag 07/07/16

We had a lie in this morning as we didn’t have to be up for breakfast until 8am. After we had been getting up between 5-6am every day we were all quite excited.

Lisa made us a great cooked breakfast, with pancakes which were delicious. We stopped in Uluru again to pick up some lunch for later in the day, and then started our drive to Kings Canyon.

It was a really long drive so we stopped at a couple of roadhouses on the way, which were normal compared to the ones we had seen earlier in the trip.

Tonight was the night we were sleeping outside in swag, so we stopped to collect firewood for our group. I somehow managed to get a wood chip in my eye, which was really painful for ages! I dropped my glasses on the floor and then couldn't find them cause I couldn't open my eyes. 

When we got to our campsite, we stopped for lunch and then helped set up camp. Kath, Emily and I tried to book a helicopter ride over the canyon, but the pilot had been called back to Alice Springs which was a shame. 

We had to lay out the swags and start fires for the other Topdeck groups, who would be arriving later in the evening. Some of them had new swags, so we had to take them out of their boxes. 

We then spent the rest of the evening hanging out and drinking wine and champagne around the campfire. We played Uno and Go Fish and Lisa taught us about the different star constellations. It was so clear that you could see the milky way. Jacinta had an AMAZING photo of me, Lawrence, Kath and Ricky by the fire and some great shots of the milky way. 

Our usual five were the last to stay awake, along with Lisa, so we took our compulsory duck face selfies. 

Kath, Lawrence and I stayed up drinking and talking until the fire died. Loz was joking about us not being able to find out swags in the dark which had us all in hysterics. When the fire went out, it was totally black, so Kath and I had to use a torch, and glowsticks to find our way to the toilet block to get ready for bed. 

At one point, Kath thought she saw an animal, screamed and it turned out to be a piece of rubbish. For some reason we decided to make our glowsticks into hoop earrings, which has been a running joke throughout the trip. 

We eventually found our way back to the swag, although I didn't really want to get in. They were absolutely freezing and I didn’t want to zip it up completely, as it was really claustrophobic. As Kath put it, it was like sleeping in a coffin. As soon as we got in I was looking forward to the wake up call from Lisa.