Unbelievable adventures

Long time has passed. In these weeks, I have done so many experiences that I would have to write an entire book about it to give you an idea.
Let’s see what I can do. Also because some of my experiences are so unbelievable that you will think I am a liar.
To begin in the right way I will give you the right direction to put me in the geography.
I arrived right now from Alice’s Springs with the Ghan, the train that connect Darwin to Adelaide. And it is quite comfortable, the chairs are big and I could even sleep well there.
Not flying is a good challenge but it is worth… I really understand how big the distances can be in this continent.
Anyway, I was in Port Campbell last time I was writing, or almost. Arriving there Moran and I decided to stop, also if there is only one bus a week to go there and out. We set my tent in the camping near the beach and we relaxed. this is the place of the 12 apostols (12 rocks), also if the apostols are not more 12 but only 9 or 10...
Spending time with Moran was really nice... she is crazy... this is a picture where she was taking picture of herself... (she was used to do it...)
The first day was wonderful, sun, swimming, reading and having nothing to think about. The second day perhaps a little bit boring, the village is really little and only a few people stop there. The third day the clouds arrived and we decided to leave. No way.
Was than, when you really think you have to wait next week to escape, when we went to the information office telling them about our problem. Now, the husband of a woman working at the office was going in that moment to Warrnambool. Unbelievable but he gives us a lift, stopping in a lot of places, giving us the possibility to take some pictures, explaining us about the territory and some histories. Is that luck?
Warrnabool was better than we’ve expected. Ok, first of all, because we didn’t expect anything. We stopped at the YHA where they give us bicycles for free to explore the “city”. It was wonderful. That place is famous in the winter for the wale watching but in the summer is beautiful as well.
Anyway I spent all day long on the bicycle, mountain bike, forgetting about the day after and the pain provoked by the saddle… this are the thinks that you learn after…
But it was worth, really.
From there we get the bus to go to Mount Gambier. We planned to spend two nights there but after we decided to stay only one.
The fact is that the only chap accommodation was “the Jail”. Now, if you think that a funny person decided to scare poor backpackers giving to a normal place a strange name, you are wrong. The Jail is really the old Jail, closed only 20 years ago and where very strange people leave. Our room was a cell, the living room is the old chapel and before to arrive to the kitchen you have to cross the air place… everything is still there.
We arrived in this strange place and there was nobody. Only a sign with write “go to the main entrance” on it. But where is the main entrance? Wondering around the place we found a man, in a cell, looking at the television. I went there and asked him: “I am sorry, but, do you know where the main entrance is? We do not find it!”
He stood up and shoot the door screaming “Can’t you read?”
As soon as the door was closed I realized that there was a sign also there: “do not disturb”.
Moran and I, we looked at each other and I really laugh, thinking that they give a good atmosphere. Anyway, I called the owner with the number on the lonely planet and he arrived. He gave us the key of the cell and went out.
We spent the day walking around the city. Is really beautiful there, the lakes are of a strange blue also if my photographs are not so good this time …
In the night in this place was “funny”.
There was a man with a long beard in the kitchen. We were looking at “reality show” where a man was shoot 3 times with a gun and was still alive. I was commentating the fact as the luckiest I have never heard when he answer me that his wife was shooting him twice and she tried to kill him hitting with her car. This was the last time she tried to do it because now she is in Jail.
We stopped eating and he even showed us the sign of the bullets. Then he told us about the history of the Jail. As he knew a lot about it I was asking him about the man we met the same day. He told us that nobody likes him ‘cause of his character. He was a prisoner in that Jail that was released but had not family or nothing to do, so he decided to remain in his old cell, paying the cheap rent.
It was in that moment when we finally decided to leave the next morning…
Therefore we took the bus to Adelaide.
6 hours later we arrived there and spent few time to find a hostel.
The city was in festival, so everything was full or really expensive.
During the day wondering around the city and during the night going to the several festivals, what a life!!
On Friday there was the “Kino Cabaret”.
In this there are some young directors doing shorts film in 48 hours and showing their production every 2 days in a cinema upstairs a bar.
I went there and see the films and I begin to speak with somebody just because he had my same camera.
He asked me what am I doing and how long I am going to stay in Adelaide.
We spoke a little bit and then he asked me… “So, do you want to participate with you own film?”
I thought I was wrong and I asked him to repeat the question.
I was not wrong.
And this is the part that probably some of you would not believe but… I was doing a short film in Adelaide and my Film was shown in the festival.
Was so strange. When I get home this night I was happy and scared at the same time… what have I done. A film, in 48 hours… what am I going to speak about?
Travelling.
Travelling had to be my subject. They were asking me to do a film after talking about my travel… this is what they are interested in. A film about travelling…
And that was.
I am not giving you all the details of my film, it would be just like destroying it… http://media.putfile.com/film-Adelaide34 … so, if you want, have a look of it... I know it is not the best film of the year but is my first try... is just 4 minutes but for me have been 4 minutes of pure emotion.
I was so critic with what I did, the music was to laud, the camera was not still enough and a lot of other thinks, but the people that sow my film understood it. They where coming to me after and almost everybody was telling me about his travel somewhere and his experience and so on.
It has been fantastic.
The film was shown on Sunday and on Monday my bus for Alice’s Springs was leaving, at 6 in the morning. I was sleeping only few hours after celebrating with the team and next morning when my alarm was ringing I wanted to die.
I get to the bus and the first stop was in Barossa Valley… wine tasting… are you completely crazy? Wine tasting during the morning and after a night of not sleeping?
No. I was skipping the wine tasting. I was sleeping in the bus and any time I was waking up any time the landscape was more desert.
We stopped in Alligator Gorge.
“Don’t worry” there was no alligator in Alligator Gorge. It was just spectacular. Big high wall very close to each other and the trip is just in the centre. We were walking and walking and I was taking pictures and taking pictures to realize at the end that I was alone. Everybody was already gone and I was still taking picture. When I realized that I begin to run and after a moment… that was longer I was thinking… I get the others. Living me in the desert… no, it was not so funny.
Lesson learned…
Anyway back to the bus and back to my dreams again.
The first day of the tour we slept in a Ghost village, where the hostel was opening only for us... but I had the possibility to sleep and a lot…
Next day desert ‘till Coober Pedy, the opal city. It is a city underground. There is so hot that even the houses and the bars and everything are underground, as our hostel.
Next day the real desert, infinite landscape without anything but red sand, wind and flies… o my God... I almost forgot the flies… all this days we have been walking with flies nets on our faces, just not to go crazy trying to catch them… there are too many, you cannot fight them, you have just to live with them…
The third night we arrived to Alice’s Springs.
There I looked for the cheapest tour, find one for 250 Australian dollars, booked and enjoyed.
This was a real adventure. No tent, no hostel. The stars were our roof and the Swegs our beds. A Sweg is just a mattress with a blanket included where you can put you sleeping bag inside. Slipping under the stars of the south. Wonderful.
Our guide was crazy. So, the adventure was even better.
I was feeling in the army. He was giving us the time: 5 minutes for the toilets. After 5 minutes he was starting the motor and going with the door open and the people had to jump inside to get in it… he teach us how to eat a real frog taken from the rock and how to drink water in the desert. I give him the blog direction, so he probably will read it… hi Jack… has been the funniest adventure of my travel until here!!!
And to do a little bit of publicity, the tour was organized by Annie’s Place in Alice’s Springs and is the cheapest and the best…
Getting back to the story.
We spent 3 days around Ayes Rock and Olgias.
Only the picture can give you a bit of imagination of how good was spending time there.
Here I am at the end. I know I wrote too much but I had a lot of things to tell you... really a lot…
Tomorrow will be my train to go to Perth and continue with my travel. I hope I will have the possibility to write more often and to let you know about my position… I am not lost in the desert somewhere, I am alive and I am enjoying the trip.