Some R&R

Sunday October 31st.

After our Wellbeing Conference I went to the movies: 'Social Networking'. I enjoyed it and in particular a bag of Irish Malteasers that a friend had sent out. The chocolate is not the same here. Caught up on some blogging, reading and house work the next two days. I was supposed to start my report for DES but could not motivate myself. There is very little mentoring of NAPs here so it will be difficult to do a comparison.

Angela and Tony stayed on Saturday night and I enjoyed their company and also being able to return some of their hospitality. It was pouring rain and cold all day so the Irish stew went down well.

Saw the International Rules on the telly and was glad that the Irish finished strongly. It was nice knowing the names of a lot of the Aussie players and not recognising some of the Irish players! A peculiar type of role reversal.

Staff Wellbeing Conference

Thursday October 28th.

Today was a ‘Pupil Free Day’ and we (the staff of St Patrick’s) used the occasion to have some PD on staff wellbeing. Last night we all checked into a local hotel and made our way to the conference room. We spent the next hour and a quarter doing group mandalas. This was followed by a group meal and back to the hotel for some social networking. Then, this morning, at seven o’ clock, we did Tai Chi in the park, with the sun on our backs (it was still freezing!) At eight we headed to a local restaurant for breakfast together. Back to the conference room at nine for some prayer and meditation. This was followed by a course on stress release provided by the local Health Board. They have a team of people who provide these courses free for companies and schools. After morning tea we did some work on ‘Shadow Sides’. The rest of the day was taken up with animal visualisation, art therapy, music therapy and more meditation.
One of our teachers spent the last month preparing and planning the day and the school funded all costs, including hotels and meals. It was a great success-it brought us all closer together and provided much needed reflection time. I fell energised in a way that only the Duracell Bunny could understand!

Locusts

On the journey back to Warrnambool, I stopped to take this photo:


For the past few months we are being bombarded on radio and telly about the threat of locusts. After drought, and there have been 12 years of it here, they increase and multiply and have been hatching all over the place: that is up to 14 and 15 kilometres of eggs in hundreds of different locations. All these eggs have been logged by a special government dept and as soon as they are ready to go on the wing they will be sprayed or even burned. It is all about timing and now is the season. Even with this huge programme there will still be swarms that will do damage. It is down to damage limitation and the greatest danger in Victoria is in the north-we are in the south. The media still carry advice and warnings, as you can see from the photo.

Darren's Story

His name is Darren Murphy from somewhere in South Australia. He has Irish heritage but does not know too much about it. He is young, early twenties, and is a dieing breed. Many young fellows are no longer prepared to do this back-breaking work. It is good short term money but has no long term benefits. A large number of shearers come in from New Zealand now. He had an unusual skill in that he can text while he shears, without missing a beat with either. He kept us entertained with stories of a TV series which he had just purchased: Californication. I made a note to rent it.

Shearing, Sharing and Travelling.

Sunday October 24th.

Got up early to see some shearing at a neighbours (i.e. 20 minutes drive away!) farm. There were two shearers going at a rate of knots. They get $2.50 per sheep and work from eight in the morning until five in the evening, with an hours lunch break and two other half hour breaks. It is tough going and very physical They bring their own electric shears but all else is provided by the farmer. The sheds and sorting/ baling etc facilities make this an expensive outlay for farmers and is one of the reasons the smaller farms have difficulty in surviving. The shearing cannot be done in a central shed like long ago due to the spread of diseases. The banter between the shearers and other workers was great crack.

Went to Mass in Edenhope and sang with the choir. It is a small congregation and the priest has six churches to service. They are hours apart and so each church has mass every second week. There will be an Ecumenical service next week in the Luthern Church.

Had lunch in Lawrie and Sue’s, Sue being the sister of Tony. It was a lovely BBQ in a house by the lake. Great family meal and it was so noticeable in the conversations that the descentents of the Irish are still a very central part of that community.

Took the back roads to Penola, where Saint Mary MacKillop built her first school. The sun was shining and I was in no hurry. The Mary MacKillop Centre was just closing as I arrived. I told them that I was all the way from Ireland and they stayed open. They also opened the schoolhouse and shop for me. I enjoyed reading Mary's story and learning that even went to Ireland and recruited there. The Irish were central to most happenings in the Australian Catholic Church.

Joe's Story

His name is Joe Farrelly from Clonmellon. He is married to an aunt of Tony's. He came to Australia 56 years ago and worked in far eastern Victoria for nine years in the Post Office. He then moved to Apsley near Edenhope where he worked until retiring a few years ago. He left Ireland at the age of 24 to have a better life and nine kids and numerous grand kids later is happy in his retirement. He still has his Westmeath accent and was delighted that I knew where Clonmellon was. A rare occurrence, no doubt!

The Farm

Saturday October 23rd.
Angela and Tony live in a modern home on a farm of two and a half thousand acres. The farm has about 9,000 sheep and 30 cattle and some 80 acres of wheat. This was sown in Summerhill where the home farm was established in the 1850s. Tony showed me a stone monument and plaque which the extended Kealy Family erected Stone monument in honour of their pioneer forefathers who came from Kilkenny in 1854. I got the opportunity to feed some sheep and lambs with oats. It was noticeable that the grass was taller than in Ireland considering the amount of sheep grazing on it. It is let grow longer as it has to last the summer when there is no growth. The grass has never been greener or better but soon the summer's sun will burn and dry it. The purpose of feeding oats was to get the lambs used to eating them now. When the weather gets hotter the dry grass is not enough to sustain the lambs who, unlike the sheep, do not have enough body fat to see them through the non-grass growing season. They will need other feed and Tony feeds them some oats five or six times to get them hooked. I got to drive the yute (like a pick-up truck) with a grain spreader attached, which was quite a thrill.

We also rounded up sheep from a neighbouring farm who broke into one of Tony’s 'paddocks'. They don't use the word 'field' here. The sheer scale of everything was mind boggling.

St Malachy's School Edenhope

Friday October 22nd.
Headed north west after school on the invitation of Angela Keely, principal of St Malachy's, Edenhope. Took about two and a half hours and Angela was waiting to show me around. Four very spacious rooms for only 40 kids. Outside they had a massive oval 9field) which they were about to cover with astro turf. They even had a proper lighting system.

Tony (husband and local farmer) joined us for dinner in the Golf Club. I noticed on the way in that it was only $15 green fees for 18 and $10 for nine. There was a prize giving ceremony for a nine hole competition called 'The Chicken Run'. There was a prize for male and female of, you've guessed it-a chicken! There was also a 'Sparrow Run' for the juniors but prize was a golf ball. Entry fee for nine hole competition was $4. All meals were $12 and the cooking was done voluntarily. This country has been built on volunteerism. Every club, society and school depends on it.

Saint Mary of The Cross

Sunday October 17th.

Today Mary MacKillop (1842-1909) was canonized by the Pope in Rome. She became the first Australian Catholic saint. There has been a huge interest here and not just among Catholics. All Australians are proud of her and the work that The Josephite Sisters did for the poor in Australia. The papers all week carried articles and supplements and all the Sundays papers featured her on their front pages. There were hours and hours of television coverage. Her image was even projected on Sydney Harbour Bridge! Last week, all the Catholic schools had pageants and many combined for pilgrimages and ceremonies. A group of Secondary School pupils were flown especially to Rome for a pageant there. For more information on Mary

http://www.marymackillop.org.au/e-news/canonisation-e-news/112-2010-10-17.html

The Grampians

Tuesday/Wednesday October 12/13.

Another bleedin' principals meeting. This one was for new principals who were three years or less in the job. As I am supposed to be doing a report on the mentoring of NAPs, when I return to Ireland, I went along. I could have done with time in school which is really busy with the finishing of the library and purchasing and installation of computers. Anyway, the course gave us time for reflection and finished early on the second day. I was able to visit Mc Kenzie Falls and Reid Lookout as I spent a few hours driving in the picturesque mountains. I finished with a very interesting visit to Brambuk National Park and Cultural Centre. This unique centre highlights the history of the region through impressive experiences and displays based upon the Aboriginal cultural heritage and the natural environment of the Grampians National Park. I left with a strong sense of injustice that was done to these people in the name of progress and religion. They were happy and content and had a wonderful lifestyle. Now many of them are dispossessed and the population had been decimated by the diseases and the excesses of so-called civilization. I can’t help comparing the way they were treated to how much better the Maoiri in New Zealand were respected.

Canadian Thanksgiving

Sunday October 10th

Bernie dropped me to Karin and Rick’s in South Kensington and we went together to Grace’s on the other side of the city for Canadian Thanksgiving. Most of the seventeen exchangees and families were there and it was great to catch up. This was probably our last day together until the farewell dinner in November. At our first get-together in March we were all talking about how difficult it was settling in to our houses or schools or both. Here we all remarked how quickly the year had gone and our biggest worry was how we were going to ship home the amount of stuff we had all accumulated. Changing times. Rick said some nice words of thanksgiving and then they all sang ‘O Canada’ their national anthem. There were many moist eyes as memories of loved ones left behind came flooding back.

As last weekend, I chose to take the train rather than drive. I have put up some miles on the car as everywhere is so far away and it was great to be able to read and relax.

Bernie Mc Hugh

Friday October 8th.

Went to Melbourne for the weekend and stayed with Bernie and Marie Mc Hugh. Jerry and I had visited Bernie's school (Resurrection) in 2007 and who subsequently visited us in 2008. It was great to catch up on old times and I was delighted to see that Bernie, who is recently retired and had been in ill health is improving. We went for a lovely meal in a local restaurant with John Steele, the principal of Holy Eucharist School in St Albans where we visited also in 2007. The next morning I joined the family for a lively brunch. The crack and the banter were good. John collected me for mass in Holy Eucharist church. The most notable thing about this was that the priest was from Vietnam.

World Cycling Championships

On Saturday October 2nd the Elite Womens’ Race was on and Leigh and I went to see it. The streets were deserted of Aussies as they were all watching the replay of the Grand Final. Only foreigners to be seen but there were quite a few of them. On the Sunday, for the Elite Mens’ race there was a bumper crowd. An Irishman featured in the breakaway for hours but was eventually caught. Nicholas Roche featured after that until the last lap when he fell away. Thor Hushovd won a sprint finish but the local lad and defending champion Cadel Evans gave it a real go making and covering breaks in the last two laps. We were all watching the race on big screens, apart from the few seconds it took them to pass us by at speed. The atmosphere was electric when Cadel made his efforts. The whole occasion was great for the city of Geelong, the sunny weather, especially on the Sunday and the ships in the harbour made it look more like the South of France, in particular when the camera panned for the aerial shots. I have tried this year to attend international events where possible. This was even more enjoyable than the tennis and surfing and on a par with the Formula One.

Geelong

Friday October 1st:
Headed down to Geelong on the train ($18). I was staying with Leigh a fellow exchange teacher from Canada and she told me that her house was about a $6 taxi ride from the train station. But because the World Cycling Championships were on many of the streets were closed. The taxi ride ($23) cost me more than the train ride! Saw the Under 23 race on the Friday and went to a Salsa dancing evening with Leigh and Janet. I was going to give it a go until I saw the standard of dancing among the men. It was unreal, so I refused to step on the floor all night. The meal was lovely, though.

The Greatest Working Bee Ever!

The photo above is of the Rook Wall and Lookout near The Blue Lake in mount Gambier. The building of this has to go down as one of the greatest 'Working Bees' ever. In September 1918 over 1,000 men and women gathered at 7.30 in the morning to begin construction of the wall and lookout. By sunset most of the work had been competed including the new stone wall up to 4 metres high and 200 metres long! It still stands proudly today as a testament to volunteerism.

Mount Gambier

Thursday September 30th: Took me the whole day to return from Adelaide. I stopped in Mount Gambier which is near the Victorian border. It is build beside three craters of an extinct volcano, the largest of which is filled with water which has a blue colour. It is appropriately called The Blue Lake. This is a turquoise blue from November to March and a winter blue from March to November (that's winter down here!) It is the only lake in the world to change colour like this. There are many theories as to why Blue Lake changes colour each year, but none yet proven. The most common theory is that the top layers of the lake warm in summer, creating a chemical reaction with the cold bottom layers, turning the lake to its brilliant blue.


There are caves beneath the streets ( the city is built on limestone with many sinkholes) and people come from all over the world to dive there but I resisted the temptation.


HMS Lady Nelson was commissioned to map and chart the coastline of that area.
The Mount Gambier Visitor Information Centre ("The Lady Nelson" Visitor & Discover Centre") has been built around a full scale replica of HMS Lady Nelson, and as part of the Discovery Centre Tour, I ventured down into the brig to hear Lt Grant tell his story of discovery.
It was a grand way to break the journey.

The Australian Light Horse Brigade

What a sad story! Read it in the papers on Anzac day and saw the momument here.

There were 13,000 Australian horses remaining at the end of World War I, but due to quarantine restrictions, they could not be shipped back to Australia. Those not required by the British or Egyptian armies were shot to prevent maltreatment by other purchasers. In the Middle East they chose to shoot most of them rather than sell them to the Arabs. They were afraid that they would be treated badly. Most soldiers were unable to kill their own mounts so they asked their mates to do so. It was as if the horses knew what was going to happen as the many stories of joint heartbreak that I read in the papers proved. Tragic.

Adelaide Oval and Glenelg

Wed 29th September: Did the tour of the Adelaide Oval. My tour guide was a volunteer dressed in a colourful cricket jacket and tie. Most informative. The ground is supposed to be on of the top surfaces in the world. A new stand is being built so it turned into a tour of the almost one hundred year old scoreboard. Massive structure that cost more than the price of a house to build ninety nine years ago. A novel fundraising idea they have is that you can ‘purchase’ a picket from the picket fence. They put your name on it and after twelve years you can keep it. I noticed John Bromby, Premier of Victoria had one. Don Bradman the greatest cricketer of all time played there for most of his career and devoted 46 years to the club as an administrator. He attended 1,763 meetings in that time. Not a lot of people know that! Finished with a visit to the Don Bradman Museum. Top class.
Back to base for a bit of grub and then headed off in the car to Glenelg, the St. Kilda of Adelaide. Beautiful seaside town but the beaches were deserted as it was only 19 degrees. While driving around I noticed that there was a Lacrosse tournament on and stopped to see what it was about. It is like hurling with a net on the end of your caman. The players wore helmets also and protection for their arms. The goals were like hockey goals. They love their sport-all sports- here. Spent a few hours walking and reading on the beach. Nice relaxing day and early night, which is good as I have a long drive ahead of me tomorrow.

Benjy and The Riordans

Tue September 28th: Took a little sleep in and cooked a big brekky then contacted Brendan. We met up in town and did the walking tour together. Lovely old stone buildings. The Museum was good though I did not like the stuffed animals. The highlight for me was the Migration Museum. South Australia was ‘colonised’ by free settlers-no convicts in these parts. Different story to Sydney and Melbourne. The story of the ‘Ten Pound Pom’ in the fifties and sixties was very poignant. They thought that they were coming to the promised land and ended up in old army huts. It was an assisted passage scheme and between 1947 and 1972 over one million came not just from GB but also from the Colonies and even from Ireland where apparently if you were born before 1949 you could be considered a British subject. I seem to remember that Benjy from the Riordans was going to go at one stage but saw no mention of that on the displays!

Trip to South Australia

Monday 27th: Left Warrnambool after ten in the morning and arrived at the Picadilly Apartments in North Adelaide at 7.30. Long journey. My first option was to get a bus to Arrat and from there to get the overland train to Adelaide, but there was no train on Monday or back on Thursday. I took my time driving and stopped twice for an hour and 30 mins respectively.

The long stop was in Robe: a charming fishing port that was once a major gateway for new arrivals to South Australia. In particular during the Gold rushes of the Mid nineteenth century the State of Victoria charged an entry tax on Chinese (only) to discourage them. It did nothing of the sort. Over 16,000 of them landed at Robe which is in South Austalia and walked up to 600 Kms to the Bendigo, Ballarat and other goldfields.

First impressions of Adelaide are how British it looks, how many gardens it has and the wide streets. Traffic moves and they have trams but no hook turns like Melbourne.

The Grand Final

Collingwod and St Kilda played a draw. I was in transit and missed the match but by all accounts it was what they call here ‘a ripper’. Footy is absolutely huge in Victoria, it used to be the VFL before it became the AFL. Yet even in Alice Springs they were talking about it. For the week before it was on every news channel on both radio and telly. The bus driver, on our tour, was a Collingwood fan and mentioned them in every conversation. The pilot on the plane back to Melbourne gave us match updates and everyone cheered or groaned. On my three hour drive back to Warrnambool footy was on some channel the whole time. The same on Sunday, one channel had a phone in, another was transmitting highlights another the whole match. The Sunday paper had 21 tabloid pages at the front on the match and 45 sports pages.
There was not as many flags and colours as at home but that may have been due to the fact that clubs get allegiances from all over and not just a particular area. Families often support different teams. Yet every man woman and child supports a team. In all my months here I have only met one person who did not follow footy. At the beginning of the year there was an article in the Sunday paper which mentioned the top five 2010 comebacks in world sport: Michael Shoemaker, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Tadhg Kennelly!

Alice Springs School of The Air

Saturday September25th: Decided to walk as it looked only about twenty minutes away on the map. It took over an hour and I only had about 70 minutes there. I would have liked more. Last week I had the opportunity to visit The School of The Air in Alice Springs. It has a physical building with an assembly hall and two radio studios from which classes are broadcast/conducted.

It was established in 1951 when one of the governors of The Royal Flying Doctors thought that the idea of using the pedal radio to consult with patients should also work for the education of children in the remote outback. So she established The School of The Air which has evolved over time to fully adopt internet video conferencing through Interactive Distance Learning (IDL).

The school caters for an area as large as Central Europe, ten times the size of England. It is known as “The largest classroom in the world.” It is the only school in the world where you can move 1,500km and still attend the same school!

Before this the kids had to learn by correspondence only. Now as well as video lessons they get a home-school tutorage bag with books and assignments going one way and work to be corrected going the other. The school still makes extensive use of traditional distance education material. The mail room at the school resembles that of a small post office, moving thousands of items a week. They get daily lessons online and also meet up as a group about three times a year: once to go on Camp, once to have a sports day/NAPLAN and once for their Christmas concerts. The Government subsidise the petrol for these meetings but the parents have to pay for accommodation. The Gov also fund the school just the same as a regular primary school. Yet it costs three times as much thus they have to fundraise. Tours of the school are one of the main fundraising efforts. Just as well, as each pupil is provided with a computer, scanner, printer and satellite dish. (Costs about $15,000) Students reside on cattle stations, aboriginal communities, national parks and military bases. They all have to have a home tutor, sometimes a parent or sometimes a young person on a gap year or the like. These home tutors are trained and also visited a few time a year. The home visits are a very exciting occasion for the pupils as they get to show their teacher around and have some face-to-face contact. It only happens about once a year due to the long distances the teachers have to travel. There are about 13 pupils in each teacher’s ‘class’. Pupils with special needs and advanced learning needs are also catered for, as are preschool students. They cater for up to Grade Nine and after that the kids attend boarding school. The performance of the pupils, as assessed by NAPLAN, compares very favourably with other Australian pupils.

The Didgeridoo Show Outback

I went along on the Friday night expecting something similar to The Mauri Show in Roterua. It was nothing like it. I was expecting to see Aboriginal people playing their music on the didgeridoo but all I got was Mike Olfield and ‘Tubular Didgeridoos’!
Well actually it was Alan Langford and two white guys on percussion performing original compositions. Alan has spent 25 years in Alice working with local tribes and his compositions, though not what I had expected, were good.

Met Brendan for a drink. No internet café open. Walked home. A lot of Aboriginees on streets.

Kings' Canyon

Friday September 24th: Another ‘four am in the morning’ to be on the road by five. Four hours through more desert to get to Kings Canyon. Desert is not barren, anything but. It is more like dried up clay than seaside sand, and once it gets rain it springs to life. We stopped at Kings Creek Station for breakfast. I can confirm that bacon and egg taste even better in the desert.

Rob’s story.
Met him in the food shed. He is from Belfast. He is the helicopter pilot at the station, but he still has to wash the dishes in the restaurant when he is not flying. Some of his flights are tourist trips and some are camel catching.

Camel Catching
The station was a small one only consisting of 800,000 acres so they supplement their income rounding up some of the many wild camels. They herd them into pens using helicopters and sell them to the Moroccan Army. They pick the best and kill the rest for food. Apparently the Aussie camel has better genetics, disease free bloodline and is hardier than their Moroccan cousins. It costs about $200 to get them penned in the station and more to export them. So, they are not cheap.

Water exam: we were not allowed to get back on the bus without having at least one litre of water each. Made to go back to the shop and get some.
We arrived at the canyon shortly after leaving the station. I had a choice of walking through the canyon for about an hour or doing the Rim Tour which takes about three hours. Thanks to The Shining Light Fit For The Job Challenge, I went for the latter.

It was tough especially the five hundred vertical steps to begin with. Being able to do 14 sit-ups in 45 seconds or 34 push-ups in two minutes was no real help! I had a laptop, two bottles of water, two cameras, food and other valuables in the back pack and felt like I was on an army manoeuvre. I struggled to take video footage, take stills and was wondering why the tour guide had done a water check when she did not give us enough time to drink the water! At the very top we went into the Garden of Eden and sat by the poolside to admire this little oasis (and to finally drink some water). The journey down was much easier and in fairness, I had climbed Croagh Patrick last November, which was a lot tougher.

Louelle’s Story: She was the bus driver and not to be tampered with. I wandered off at one of the stops and she pulled off as I got to the bus. She must have been a sergeant major in another life. She is also a Collingwood supporter.

Rachel's Story

This is her real name but I forgot to ask her if she had a mother! Early twenties, red hair, Flannery and Geoghgan in the bloodline. Came from Brisbane and was only in the job six months. Loves it as is evident from the enthusiasm with which she imparts the information. Hopes to eventually hire a small bus and set up as her own boss doing tours though not necessarily in Central Australia. Though from Brisbane she is an outback girl at heart. I forgot to ask her if her father’s name was Crocodile.

The Sorry Book

In the centre was a book containing letters sent by people who over the years had taken stones from Uluru or climbed The Rock. The letters expressed their regret and sorrow and returned the stones. It made for interesting reading, some even suggesting that it brought them bad luck.

Uluru at Sunrise

Thurs. 23rd: The problem is that you have to rise before the sun, at ‘Four in the Morning’ as the song says. Some things are worth it and even though there was cloud cover and the photos were not as spectacular as the night before, this was. Walking from the bus to the viewing area in the silence and stillness of pre-dawn in this historic/religious place was an experience to treasure. If ever there was a monolith worth getting out of bed for, this is it! Uluru was first sighted by Europeans in 1872 but this area has been sacred to the local Anangu people for tens of thousands of years.
After sunrise we went to the base of the rock to get the history and folklore of the place from Rachel. She told us many folk tales and explained the religious significance of some of the places. We were asked not to take photos in these places as the Anangu believe that it captures the spirits associated with them. There were plenty of ‘Kodak Moments’ besides. She also explained that as The Rock is a religious site climbing is discouraged by the Anangu. Under their laws climbing is prohibited to everyone except senior men initiated into the Anangu culture. The climb can also be dangerous, approx 37 people to date have died, mainly of heart attacks on the climb and countless others have been injured. These deaths and injuries cause the Anunga further distress, imagine someone getting badly injured or killed in your house and you get the drift. BTW she also explained that it is better for her to come back with a dead body rather than a missing one (if you know what I mean!). apparently the paperwork for a missing person is ten times as much. The Anunga hope to get climbing banned eventually. Why don’t they get the Health and Safety Officer to close it down? As the climb was closed (it is closed around 200 days in the year) due to high winds, we did not have any moral dilemma. The base walk with Rachel explaining the folklore and stories associated with the various landmarks and water holes was better than any old climb and heart attack. We finished with a visit to the Uluru-Kata-Tjuta Cultural Centre to view displays on Aboriginal culture and history, films of traditional art and dance and a shop selling local works of art. Sure, it was nearly as good as Newgrange Interpretive Centre!

The Underwear Tree!

Red Centre Signs

Uluru (Ayers Rock) at Sunset

After lunch we went on a tour of Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). They, like Uluru were formed about 550 million years ago when the area was at or below sea level. Mud and sand from rivers settled on the sea floor in layers called ‘alluvial fans’. As the sea levels fell and the mountains rose these fans were squeezed and tipped almost on end. Erosion and weathering removed much of the soluble salts and limestone to shape the rocky spectacles. Kata Tjuta is a series of strange dome shaped sandstone outcrops. End of geology lesson! It is like Uluru except that they are domes. We walked between the domes at Walpa Gorge and enjoyed the spectacular environs of red rock in the sunshine.
We then headed to Uluru for the sunset. Tourists must go to a designated area and as we pulled into the car park in front of us was a long line of tables with people sitting on Papal chairs. On the tables were drinks and nibbly bits. There was a buzz of excitement as some people asked for another drink-only kidding, the excitement was due to the changing colour of The Rock as the sun set. A special moment. There was a full moon also so the snaps should be good.

Brendan's Story

While waiting for the tour bus outside the hotel I befriended Brendan Hayes ( it is his real name but he only had one mother!) from Wexford. He remarked on how lovely the Galway hurling jersey looked in the sunshine! We got chatting and it turns out that he is in Oz for six weeks fulfilling a lifetime dream. He has just come from Perth and is heading to Adelaide next-as am I. He then told me that he would be driving from Adelaide to Melbourne. He hoped to do The Great Ocean Road and was planning on staying in a place beginning with ‘W’ the night before! We did a lot of the tours together and are meeting again in Alice on Friday, as well as Adelaide the following week. The week after that I have invited him to stay with me in ‘Warrnambool’ As Zig and Zag would say…

An Raibh Tu ag a' gCarraig?

Do bhí. Chonaic mé an ghrian ag éiri agus an ghrian ag dul faoi ann. Bhí sé go hálainn, amach is amach.

Ayers Rock Resort

We arrived shortly after one and I stayed at The Pioneer Outback Hotel. There are only five hotels in the town. This newtown was built about ten years ago and is about 20K from Uluru which is now a national park and no longer has any accommodation. The airport used to be right beside The Rock but this was also moved. The newtown is just one big circle with hotels, a shopping centre and school, all owned by the one company. Due to its remoteness prices are dear here but without competition everything is even more expensive. It is hard to understand how this company were allowed buy everything up. It reminded me a little of Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, where I lived for a while. All built from scratch in the desert. They both even have a free shuttle bus to get from A to B, although in this case you don’t have to go too far down the alphabet.

I had five mothers-John's Story

On the bus, I got chatting to John (not his real name) from New Zealand. He was born in Australia and in 1947 his mother (1) died. His dad was just home from the war and so his aunt in Sydney sent dad on his own to New Zealand to recover from the traumas. Two years later John followed but lived with another aunt for a year before rejoining his dad who had remarried. This mum (2) died about ten years later and after a suitable time his dad married the nurse (3) who had cared for her during her illness. She in turn got melanoma and was dead three years later. After a suitable time his dad married a widower (4) who lived next door. Before his dad died he told John that he had been adopted (5)! As Zig and Zag would say:
“It’s a funny old Rock and Roll world!”

Mount Connor

About an hour before Uluru (Ayers Rock) we stopped to observe a rock that is the same height as Uluru but has a much bigger base. It looked blue/grey in colour but was on private land so we had to be content with some photos from the roadside some miles away. It looks like Uluru and it feels like Uluru but it is not Uluru.

Australian Camels

We stopped at Stuarts Well Camel Farm for some refreshments and I bit the bullet and took a camel ride. My minder was a gal from Sweden. I asked her how many camels there are in Sweden and she not surprisingly replied that there were none. I tried to persuade her to start a camel farm there but she was not having any of it. Pity, I think that it could be the next big thing in Sweden! Funny how I spent four years in Saudi Arabia and I had to come to Australia for my first camel ride.

The next time you see me remind me to tell you the story of the fellow who lost his camel on O connell Street.
Did you know that there are huge numbers of camels in Central Australia? Harry brought the first one in, in 1846 from the Canaries that great camel breeding ground. The first camel was a contrary SOB so Harry decided to shoot him. While holding the loaded gun he was nudged by the camel, the gun went off and blew away two of Harry’s fingers. As he was in the outback far from medical attention, gangrene soon set in. Harry died, thus becoming the only man that was ever shot dead by a camel!
Anyway many camels were imported in particular to help with the laying of the overland telegraph. Explorers and gold miners also used them. By 1920 there were around 20,000 in harness. By then there were cars and the Ghan Train Line had been built signalling the end of their era. They all got the hump and stormed off into the desert-only kidding! They were let free and now there are 1.25 million of them doing terrible damage to the vegetation. Apparently they eat trees so the Government are employing people to round them up in helicopters and shoot them. It is causing controversy here as they are being left to rot after being shot. The ones closer to civilisation are being exported live and butchered for their meat which is then exported to Morocco, but the rest are too far away for this to be viable. At the end of the day they estimate that they will cull about 300,000 which means that the number will soon be back up to 1.25 million.