Singapore - the gateway to South East Asia

Having been cold and wet for our last few days in Australia, we're now sweltering in temperatures of 30 degrees and suffering the effects of extremely high humidity.  It's very reminiscent of the summer weather we experienced when we lived in Florida 17 years ago.  At least everywhere is air conditioned.
The flight from Melbourne was uneventful and we arrived in Singapore on 14 April 40 minutes early.  Lizzie arrived to escort us back to her flat on the MRT (their equivalent of the underground, but that is where the similarity ends - the Singapore version is cleaner, cheaper and far more reliable).  It was lovely to see Lizzie again and she's living a wonderful life in Singapore, but as usual, working very hard (and playing hard too).  Unfortunately for her Phil has been away for nearly 2 weeks so I think she's enjoyed having us coming and going (I hope she has anyway!).

On Friday morning Jon and I took ourselves in to Singapore city.  We walked along Clarke Quay and Boat Quay along the Singapore River and viewed all the skyscrapers and weird and wonderful builldings.  Singapore certainly seems to be competing with Dubai on that front.  One building is like a durian fruit (the extremely stinky tropical fruit) and another is 3 towers of 88 floors with a ship across the top of them!  The towers are a hotel, but there's also a shopping mall, casino, artscience museum and the ever present hawker centre (albeit far more upmarket food in this one).

We went to see the Merlion (the statue of a lion and fish which represents Singapore), but unfortunately it was covered up by a hotel room (!) - art.  However, we went inside the room for a nose!  We then went to China Town and on the way stopped at Lau Po Sat, a famous hawker centre where we stopped for a very late lunch (about £3 for both of us).  A few temples later and we were heading out on the MRT to the Night Safari at Singapore Zoo.  This showcases all the animals' night time behaviour.  There were a couple of  'Disney-esque' stage shows, a 40 minute tram ride around the park and 3 x 20 minute walking trails.  We were amazed at how active all the animals were and how much we saw.  We were pretty 'cream-crackered' by the time we got back to Lizzie's just before midnight!
On Saturday morning we'd planned to go swimming, but a typical tropical storm put paid to that so once Lizzie got in from playing cricket we went off to Marina Bay Sands (the building with the ship on the roof) for lunch at the hawker centre followed by a drink on the 'boat' on the 88th floor (£5 for a fruit juice), and a good old nose around!

Lizzie went off to a hen party while Jon and I took ourselves to Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling.  We'd heard about peanut shells all over the floor but were amazed and the actual amount!  The Sling was very enjoyable (we'd had one on the flight from Melbourne) but it's not something you'd do a second time - with service and tax added each one cost nearly £15!


Sunday 17 April was a day not to be forgotten.  Jon had previously been in touch with Ray with whom he'd been at Imperial College and hadn't seen since graduation nearly 40 years ago.  Ray was organising an IC day out at the Singapore Turf Club and we were invited along.  Trouble was, posh clothes didn't feature in our backpacking wardrobe!  Luckily Carol had a skirt with her so was OK.  Jon had to borrow a (large) pair of shoes from Phil (Lizzie's partner) and a tie from Ray.  Unfortunately he didn't read the invite properly so had to borrow Ray's jacket as short-sleeved shirts weren't allowed!  That aside it was a really good day even though neither of us has an interest in horse racing.  We were in a private box and the day included lunch and afternoon tea (all free).  We felt like royalty sitting in comfy chairs in the box watching the races!   A tour of the turf club was also included.  There were 11 races and we placed bets on 8 - no pressure to put loads of money on so we spent S$10 on each race we bet on.  We had 2 wins and came away with a S$15 profit!  All in all a really good day!

Today we have been out and about in Singapore again.  We went to Changi first off - site of the POW camp in World War 2.  Very interesting but heartbreaking too.  We then took ourselves off to another hawker centre for lunch and followed that by a walk down Orchard Road (home of all the posh shops).  We finished the day with a bumboat ride on the Singapore River as the sun was going down.
Tomorrow we head off to Malaysia.  We've bought the bus tickets and are hoping that when we get to Mersing we'll be able to get the boat with no problem to Pulau Tioman and once there will be able to find somewhere to stay - we could be camping on the beach, only trouble is we posted the tent, stove and pans home to lighten our loads!
Anyway, Singapore has been hot, humid but very enjoyable, made even more so by Lizzie's hospitality.  We've seen a lot by taking ourselves around on the very efficient transport system and are hoping the rest of south east Asia will be just as good.
Malaysia here we come!

Farewell to a stowaway, our Jucy home and Australia

Broken Hill is in New South Wales but operates on South Australia time.  All these time zones have been confusing - Victoria is different to South Australia (half an hour ahead) which was different to Northern Territory at the start. 3 weeks into our campervan journey daylight saving ended (northern territory don't have daylight saving) so we came on to the same zone as South Australia.  If you're confused, so were we.  We are sure that we're now operating on the correct time!
Broken Hill came about due to silver being discovered, so we did a tour down an old silver mine which had been operating until 1983.  We had to go down complete with hard hats, battery packs and lights.  It was all very interesting - very dark when we all had to turn our lights out!

We also went to Silverton just outside Broken Hill which is famous for various movies, mainly Mad Max.  It was a bit like a Wild West ghost town!
We went to a Desert Park with various stone sculptures but to be honest we found it very contrived and would far rather see natural rock formations while out walking.
The other memorable thing about Broken Hill was the birds on the campsite.  At dusk each evening hundreds of cockatoos came to roost in the trees at the site.  Some were seen to be doing somersaults around the power lines - very amusing!  The problem was, because of the lights on the site the birds didn't really quieten down all night - thank goodness for earplugs!
From Broken Hill we headed back to Melbourne via the Murray River (evidence of a lot of flooding) - via Mildura, Swan Hill and Seymour.  Nothing sensational on the way except that the weather turned and we got wet and cold!  We called in to Lake Boga on the way which has a Catalina flying boat museum.  It was the repair depot for the flying boats during the war.
Other than that nothing exciting except on the penultimate night a mouse found its way in to our van and kept us 'company' for the final 2 nights - we were only aware of it in the quiet of the night when it was scratching around and apparently doing somersaults.  At one stage it ran over Jon's arm!
We handed our Jucy home back to the Melbourne depot on 12 April, complete with stowaway!  (We were good enough to tell them about it to save the next hiree from getting a surprise!)
And so back to the same hostel in Melbourne we'd stayed in at the beginning.  Still just as scungy but at least we had our own room.  It also gives free breakfasts (cereal and toast), is very close to the campervan depot and gives seriously discounted evening meals and drinks for 'inmates'.
Yesterday, 13 April, we took ourselves in to see the sights of Melbourne.  Went in on the tram and then toured around on a free tourist bus and a free tourist tram.  We went up the Eureka Sky Tower which has the highest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere.  It also has 'the Edge' - a glass box that extends out over nothing, 88 floors up.  We didn't pay for that privilege of having our 'collies' seriously 'wobbled'!  The view was OK but would have been far better without the belts of rain that kept moving in.  However we had good views of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Rod Laver Arena (and the rest of the venue for the Australian tennis open) and Lake Albert (home of the Melbourne Grand Prix)
However, we have now checked out and once this update is completed we will be heading in to Melbourne on the tram to get the airport shuttle bus.  Our flight to Singapore is at 3.45pm this afternoon.  We are staying with Carol's friend, Lizzie Phillips (from the University of Southampton) and looking forward to the next (and final) major leg of our Big Adventure.
So, from Australia, farewell.  We'll update from Asia as and when we get the opportunity.

Kangaroos are like London buses!

Having got to Alice of course we had to drive all the way back again.
We left Alice Springs on Saturday 2 April and 48 hours later arrived at our next major destination of Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges north east of Port Augusta.  We camped 2 nights at roadhouses on the way south (free again!).
At Wilpena we camped just outside the Pound at a site which had a camp kitchen - by now we'd decided that this was a major criteria in choosing a site (the campervan only had 1 single burner with no windshield).

Wilpena Pound is a huge natural basin surrounded by high rock escarpments.  Technically a huge syncline. The centre of the Pound is covered in trees. 
On our first full day there we walked to see some Aboriginal cave paintings and also walked up to a lookout with views over the Pound.
The next day we decided we'd do the difficult walk to St Mary's Peak, the highest point in the Flinders Ranges.  Every walk we've done in NZ and Australia has been over-classified in our opinion and the times given have been generous.  However, this time it was different!  The first 5 kms of the walk were easy along the flat, but then the climbing began.  By now the temperature was rising as fast as the track!  We got to the saddle about 1.5kms from the summit and couldn't believe how much climbing there still was to do.  After a brief lunch stop we began the approach to the summit.  However, we soon realised it was going to be much harder than we thought so we decided to err on the side of caution and give in gracefully and act our age!  We decided to turn back and return to the car park by a more gentle but much longer route through the Pound.  We ended up by walking 20kms in temperatures in the upper 20's!  (We consumed 4.5 litres of water between us!)

We spent the whole of our time in the outback on the lookout for wildlife and in the journey to Alice and back we spotted 3 kangaroos, 6 emus, a dingo that crossed the road in front of us and a snake that Carol ran over while driving.  We thought that would be the end of our wildlife experience - because of all the rain there's been in the Outback (there's lying water everywhere and it's all very green rather than dusty red), none of the wildlife need to move much to find food.  It's good for them but not the tourists.  However, in Wilpena Pound we saw many emus and kangaroos - like waiting for a London bus you wait forever for one to come along and then they all turn up at once!  It got to the stage of 'oh no, not another kangaroo!'
We left Wilpena on 7th April, destination Broken Hill, the Silver City.

A Town Like Alice

By now we were a week past our halfway mark of our Big Adventure - where had the last 15 or so weeks gone?
Although the drives in the Outback are long you barely see another car and the roads are straight, wide and well sealed so driving is not such a problem and average speeds are easily maintained.  Also with 2 of us driving it never seemed too bad or tiring.
We stayed at a campsite near the centre of Alice and spent the first day seeing the local sights - Flying Doctor Service, School of the Air, Anzac Hill and the Old Telegraph Station which is where and why Alice Springs was established - it was a relay station on the overland telegraph line between Adelaide and Darwin.

 The second day was spent admiring and walking in the East McDonnell Ranges and the third day in the West McDonnell Ranges. 

 We walked to see numerous gorges and water holes and natural rock features.  We swam in one waterhole - the warnings were to be careful as it was extremely cold.  The authors of the warnings obviously haven't swum outdoors in England!

The campsite in Alice had a pool which we used much to the amazement of a local lady.  She was wrapped up in jeans etc saying it was getting quite chilly now - we were sweltering in 28 degrees!

In the Outback

Woomera was an interesting place.  It started life back in the 40's or 50's as a missile testing site for UK and Australia.  It became a rocket testing site and now still does military work with the Japanese - the Americans left in 2000 (or 2001?).  Anyway it used to be very hush-hush and when Carol was there 30 years ago the group had to get a day pass to gain access to use the swimming pool (complete with dates of birth and passport numbers).  Now, although there are restricted areas in the desert anyone can go to Woomera village.  We camped at the caravan park there.  In the village is a missile park and a very interesting interpretive centre.

From Woomera we drove a day to Coober Pedy (which means 'white man in a hole') which is the main place for opal mining.

The place is littered with what look like huge white molehills but in fact this is the spoil from thousands of test drills when people have been prospecting for opals.  In the town itself many people live in 'dugout' homes (underground) because of the extreme heat.  We went on a tour which took us around the opal fields (noone's working right now as the profit margin on opals has plummeted), into an underground church and home and to a museum.

 

Our guide worked as an opal miner for nearly 40 years so was able to tell us a lot (he was German!).  The tour finished with a free drink in an underground bar!

From Coober Pedy it was a long slog to Ayers Rock (Uluru) and we stopped a couple of hours short of there at a roadhouse and free camping!
The aborigines don't like you to climb the Rock these days and in fact the climb is more often than not closed.  However, although we didn't go to the top we saw it from every other angle possible - sunset viewing, sunrise viewing, a Ranger-guided walk and we also walked the 10.5 kms around the whole base of the Rock.
Luckily the campsite had a swimming pool - it was very welcome in that heat although the flies weren't so welcome and the whole time we were in the outback we were very pleased to have flynets to stop the flies flying into our ears, eyes and up our noses!

From Uluru we also visited the Olgas - another rocky outcrop of the same sort of age and formation as Uluru.  Again, we did several walks to take in the scenery (and even saw a couple of kangaroos on one of them) and watched the sunset over them (the Olgas, not the kangaroos!)

Our next port of call was Kings Canyon - Australia's answer to the Grand Canyon.  We did the Canyon Rim walk one day.  The heat was exhausting and Carol was suffering a heavy cold, but it was more than worth it for the views.

And so to Alice Springs.  More of a Town Like Alice in the next thrilling instalment!