Day 88: Uluru Sunrise, Kata Tjuta, Cultural Centre

Wednesday 2nd March

Sunrise over Uluru

Walk at Kata Tjuta

Aboriginal Cultural Centre

Swimming pool!

Closer look at Uluru

Sunset and Champagne 

Barbecue and bugs

Distance: 130km

Total Distance:

The day should have begun at 5:20am. Instead I woke up at 4:30am with a desperately dry mouth and a need to pee. Such fun we have in the desert! Everything revolves around water. The litre I'd left by my swag wasn't enough, but a second round seemed to move me one step further from prune. This would happen again the next morning. Each morning I'm having to drink 4-5 litres in the first few hours of waking. The temperature at night is 19C. Seems to be just the dry air taking it out of me as I sleep. However, this sort of situation, whilst extreme, isn't entirely unusual to me. Hence why I have several litres of bottles so I can keep well hydrated.

Having survived the night of slow dehydration and being surrounded by venomous invertebrates it was time to prep for sunrise. This involved preparing for more dehydration, strong sun, and something memorable. 4 litres of water, sun cream, camera. Easy.

Our new German guy who joined at Alice Springs took my favourite photo for expressing the sunrise I saw. A photo of 13 cameras held above 15 heads as the sun rose. It was lovely, it was pleasant, it was beautiful. But I'm not much of a sunrise watcher if we're honest (extra hour in bed is preferable). Thus the thing that will stick with me most was the hilarious sight of everyone else. 100 people, all with various cameras, staring out into the sun, trying to get their own perfect shots. Lots of shots. Especially the men having a midlife crisis- each had a very expensive ginormous camera, maybe with a telescopic lens, maybe a tripod, taking 10-50,000 photos at a time, some of which they might look at. "It was such a special experience. I really felt at one with nature. It was awe inspiring."- sun came up, pictures were taken, time for breakfast. Sorry, I've seen too many sunrises to see one as "unique". But the girls seemed to enjoy it. I'd rather be hiking over something.

Time to go over Kata Tjuta.

Many millions of years ago Western Australia had a mountain range larger than the Himalayas. To the east the land was all under the sea. An enormous river ran from the mountains into this sea. One meander of this river dropped mostly boulders, rocks, and pebbles, with a little sand. A later meander dropped the smaller sand particles. At each site these were bound together by sand and pressure. The latter became the world's largest single rock- Uluru. The first created a structure which is nobbley and heavily watered, surrounded by dropped boulders and collections of rocks. This is Kata Tjuta- "Many Heads"- a similar height and circumference to Uluru, but made of many rolling lumps.

Kata Tjuta is a site sacred to Aboriginal men. No Aboriginal women are allowed here (though non-aboriginal women are). It was used as the area where men taught older boys how to hunt and find water. The whole structure is sacred in this manner. We would later learn that Uluru is split into many sacred sites. Some are for men, some for women, and some for all the people.

With the shape of the structure a significant amount of rain collects here. These leaves the 'gorges' and 'valleys' a verdant green, especially compared to the surrounding desert. Combined with the red lobular structure of the structure it's a beautiful place. Personally I actually preferred it to Uluru, but then again I prefer biology to geology. 

With the water and greenery must also have drawn significant numbers of animals too. This would explain why it was such a good place to teach young men how to find water and hunting.

We walked through and over the valleys of Kata Tjuta up to a viewing point. It was early in the morning and HOT. 4km didn't take too long thankfully, yet we still huddled under each bit of shade we found. Coming back we met some poor idiots walking in after 9am with less than a half litre of water. And that's how folks get in trouble here. I did 2 litres whilst climbing about it, as did most of the group.

Afterwards we went to the air conditioned Aboriginal Cultural Centre. Here we learnt about their oral law, language, customs, arts, and way of life from the myriad of displays on offer. There was even a display of women creating the dot art that the central Australian Aboriginal nations are famous for.

After lunch at noon it had become far too hot to do anything sensible. Hence we spent the afternoon in a cold water swimming pool, under the cover of trees, next to a camel farm. Most of the group was there, plus a couple of locals. We chatted away talking about some of the most random and ropey subjects available- not helped by having an ER nurse, and ER nurse's daughter, a vet nurse, and a vet, on hand. Ladies and gents, we've seen some weird stuff.

Having cooled off and scared the locals with story time it was nearly sunset. We pre-prepared everything for dinner then headed out. 

First stop was a drive around all of Uluru- an 8km drive. Yes, it's not far to walk, but if it's light here then the temperature is well over 30C. Not as easy as plan B- do half tonight and a wee bit more tomorrow morning. 

As we circled our guide explained a few of the important parts of the rock. The Aboriginal tie all of there stories to parts of the landscape. For example the fire story we learnt in Tully contained reference to a local hill that appears to have been split in two. All of their stories are about shape shifters who took the forms of an human and an animal and could change size. At Uluru there are rocks that are eggs left by a giant snake woman, scars formed after a battle, and a totem pole of stone. It would take ages for me to pass on a minor amount of this information. Our guide had to do a two week course to be officially allowed to tell us what he knows, and that's minimal compared to what the Elders know.

Most of this evening's walk was about a few sacred sites. There were sites for teaching children or young men and a sacred cave for giving birth. The teaching caves and areas displayed instructional art drawn by ancestors. The walls were used as a form of black board to write out ideas for the young to learn. Each cave is relatively cool and sheltered. This helped in the heat of the day- a good time to escape and to teach.

At the sunset viewing point there were hundreds of older people (cruise ship age) all from one tour company. They had a few acres of clean tables set up with champagne and nibbles, were dressed appropriately, and quietly enjoying themselves. Then we arrived in our purple minibus, dressed in whatever, slightly sweaty, with a fold up table, crackers and dip, plastic flute glasses, and 4 bottles of sparkling wine. We had much more fun than them- or at least we laughed and shouted more. We even out did the 18-20 year olds that arrived off a big Contiki coach. Oh, and sunset. I'm into sunset as much as I am sunrise. Sorry, not so fussed. Although Uluru changed colour somewhat as it got darker. That was worth a few pictures.

Back at camp it was time for a proper Aussie barbie! I volunteered to cook whilst the others sorted veg or later cleaned. This was enjoyable but deciding to stand by fire in a desert whilst in a small steel shed wasn't one of my smarter moves. I sweated buckets as my 60s playlist rang out from my phone and the various invertebrates danced about our lightbulb before kamikazing towards the hot plate. Potatoes, sweet corn cobs, onions and mushrooms, sausages, burgers, and kangaroo. It was a challenge a ran at and hammered out a feast for 25 people. Sadly there were only 13 of us though. Hence there's now a large pack of cold meats chilling with some ice in the trailer, ready for tomorrow.

It was an odd night for bugs. Large black beetles were everywhere. One couldn't help but stand on multitudes. There were cockroaches, giant green grasshoppers, little preying mantis, odd shield bug too. We painted Raid across the doorways which slightly helped. Still a lot to sweep up the next day though.

That night we wre back out in swags. I drank about 4 litres between barbecuing and bed. Nearly enough to get me towards 'normal'. I was exhausted.  

Day 87: Leaving Alice Springs for Uluru

Tuesday 1st March

Big water hole

Driving from Alice Springs

Uluru!!!

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I'm writing in the bus right now. Here's the view

And that's most of today!

Though first we had a quick trip down to the big water hole near to Alice Springs. A series of rocky hills divides the country near Alice Springs. One of the reasons the town is there is due to the small divide in this range that sits nearby. Here a dry river bed, rail track and highway all allow movement from one side to the other. Other than this the only other accessible pass is hundreds of kilometre's away.

However about an hour up the road a small divide is evident in the hills. A small creek passes through this point. Where it hits the rocks it has warn a small pond which is filled with brown, tannin laden, water. Here we went for a cool morning swim. A beautiful little place for a little exercise and bonding before our 7 hour drive down to Uluru.

The rest of the day involved watching red desert and a few bushy shrubs roll past the windows. We'd see a few more hills, rocks, and trees. There was a service station next to an Emu farm- that didn't serve Emu! Very disappointed. I got a lot of writing done, did some reading, many of us slept. This is Australia. It's the size of Europe, bigger than the USA, we have thousands of miles to cover. The day after tomorrow we're set to do even more!

Finally, though, we made it to Uluru, the original name for Ayre's Rock. We were there just in time for sunset. I've put many more photos of Uluru on my brand new Instagram account name is Dr_ama_dinosaur there's plenty of photos on there and I'm trying to add to them as much as possible.

 

That night we slept in swags again, under the desert stars.

Day 86: Fly into Alice Springs

Monday 29th February

Happy Leap Day!

Good Bye

Flying to Alice Spirings

Hot. Dry. Spiders.

New people! Hello! Gluten Tag!

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We didn't really have to wake up too early, but it was really necessary. Today we were splitting. 6 of us would be going to Alice Springs. 1 was staying in Cairns. And 13 were off north, to Cape Tribulation. Hence we were up, by the roadside, me swallowing my vegemite on toast and coffee as the girls attempted not to cry. Hugs and heart felt sorrow. I've done this too many times already though. Throughout New Zealand I switched between groups and hostels all of the time. I wanted to do a tour like this to have a "home" for a change. Not to have to constantly meet new people and lose the old. In time I've become a big believing in the idea that the important ones come back though, by accident or design. This happened in NZ, as well as with the people I left after school and university. Phones, Facebook, Skype, and we can plan to physically meet up in the future. That's the beauty of the modern world. Still, it's sad to have our old home broken like this. I'll miss having them about. The time we had was great.

Time to fly into Alice Springs!

Not far out of Cairns the landscape went from sugar cane and forests to red scrub land. Occasionally rocks, mountains, and perfectly straight roads appeared. There was the odd mine. Then I fell asleep. And we were landing.

It was odd. Like opening an AGA. Very hot, yet very dry. Hence I didn't really feel it properly until I went into the air conditioned terminal. Bag collection, new "CEO" tour guide, mini bus to hotel, blog write ups, nap, food shopping, more sleep. 

At 7pm we all met up in reception. 6 new people joined us. A German guy, 3 German women, a Canadian girl, and a Scottish lass. It must be very odd for them when the 6 of us already know each other so well. We went out to the pub for dinner and a few drinks to chat. I got a steak bigger than my hand for $10-that's about £5! Wasn't ever going to be the best I've ever had, but it was still good. We chatted away to the new people and got to know them. Were about to spend a huge amount. Of time together, better to be friends!

Day 85: White Water Rafting

Sunday 28th February

Yet another early start, but this time to go White Water Rafting!

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Our start wasn't really all that so early-6.30am minibus sent by the rafting company. All being English speaking we quickly understood the instructions. Have shoes that won't fall off. Collect wrist band. Sit in numbered seat on the giant coach. Fill out waive health and safety forms.

It wasn't so easy for the guides though. This was a BIG operation, involving a few buses carrying many people. Many were from East Asia and English was their second or third language, if they knew it at all. Started to feel like many didn't if we're honest. Thus the start and the end of our day, which involved about 2 hours of travel each easy and a lot of instructions being given, was relatively chilled as the guides tried to get messages across to the rest of the troupe. It would have been funny if they guides weren't such nice guys and clearly exasperated by the whole performance.

6 from the tour had signed up and the rafts were 6 person vessels. Perfect! We got a very experienced guide who'd done ten years of rafting, taken an extended break due to injury, and returned some months ago. Originally from Invecargill on the Southen tip of New Zealand he was very pleased to have us. We could all swim. We could all paddle (having been canoeing already). And we alll spoke English.

This gave us a greate measure of freedom. We could follow commands and get done what needed to be done. At times our guide would let us go for a swim as he went back to nature rafts were safely making it over rapids. He took us to a few less used locations and allowed us to try out different areas of the river.

At lunch time burgers, hotdogs, salads, juice, coffee, and tea were provided. The road runs relatively close to the river so they have a semi-permanent set up of tarps and wood. It was a cool spot with only a few flies to annoy us.

That afternoon we added another 4km to our 6km. It was hot and despite our best efforts we were getting burnt knees. The river want as high as it could have been had there been more rain. The river we were on though is the only one that can be rated all year round in Australia though. This is due to a dam at e top of the river. The rafting company has an agreement with the dam holders to keep a minimum amount of water flowing so as to enable rafting. Yet we still got stuck on a variety of rocks and so had to do some very interesting manuvers to get free. It was a complete contrast to the worst our guide had ever seen. Ten years ago he'd started a tour during a day when a cyclone was coming in. During the day the river rose 16 metres! That's taller than some of today's trees along the bank- but apparently they're mostly regrowth from various cyclones that batter the areas, felling forests.

At the end everyone from East Asia was was loudly commanded to get dried, changed, and back onto the coach for our return. 

In Cairns the hostel gave us all free drinks for the mess after last night's meal. We then left for the two "must see" bars in Cairns. 

The Woolshed is a bar n grill type place where after food we were invited to dance on the tables and the girls given free champagne. One of our whiter than white German girls was swarmed by a Japanese stag party, who all wanted photos with her.

Gilligan's is a huge night club, with an area outside for live bands, a pool for day time use, and a massive, ancient, tree in the roof that extends over the beer garden. We were all tired by this point. It was good, but nothing that I haven't actually seen before. Except for the wet tshirt competition, which was terrifying. And it proved that some British people abroad have no shame, unlike the Germans. Time To Go!!!

Day 84: Transport troubles, Aboriginal workshop, Eating Croc

Saturday 27th February

Early morning train and bakery 

Planetera aboriginal workshop-Tully

Bus broke down

Cairns

Croc burger

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Alarm set for 3:50am. Woken at 3:30am. Out by 4:10am. Bus slightly late, on at 4:30am. Get to train station. Check in luggage. Train late by 20 minutes. Bus driver takes us all to the local bakery. 

He may have done this to spend more time chatting up to young Germans. And to give them a history lesson about their own country. And a geography lesson. And tell them all about what he wanted to do when he finally got to go to Germany-first up was going to Concentration Camps...interesting guy...

The train was cool. Like a plane but with leg room. TV, movies, music, tea and coffee, air con, great views. Well, mostly air con. Once we got far enough north, about 4 hours in, it was getting too hot outside. Components were starting to fail. There was a limit put on speed- making us increasingly late. The air con failed. Noooo!!!

Finally we got to roasting hot Tully. 37C. 

We were here due to a charity that G adventures, our tour company, is in partnership with. They run community projects for local people's wherever they take tours. These give an opportunity for traveller to see more of local life, culture, history, and people. They also offer employment and finance to those who would otherwise be struggling. This is the case for many of the Australian Aboriginal. Not through lack of experience, understanding, or training, it can be made impossible for them to get any jobs. Australia does have something of a racist shadow to its international reputation. This is that shadow brought into the light.

That's the purpose of the cafe at Tully train station. To give local people a chance to run a business for themselves. Have a job and make it a success. They provided a lunch of sandwiches, fruit and cake, with juice, tea, and coffee. Then it was time for our lesson in history and art.

We learnt the story of how fire was brought to earth.

(I'm presently on a bus so I'll try fill you in on exact species another time.)

A giant snake held all of the fire. He was asked by a small black and white bird for some fire. He refused.

The small bird asked each of the birds which had fire-red in their plumage .

First the casawery (I can't spell) and the bush turkey went to get fire. They failed.

Then the red tailed black cockatoo and red shouldered black bird went. They failed.

The King Parrot was then asked. He has a red body and green wings.

He asked a white bird to help, covering him in ash so white would become a black-blue colour (without fire where did they get the ash from? I wasn't enough of a pedant to ask) and made him practice flying techniques like swooping.

The darkened bird crept in and managed to steal a hot coal. As it flew away the snake was enraged. He lashed out, splitting a local hill into two, and embedding one fang in a local river.

The bird, however, wasn't good enough at frying so as not to hit a few trees as he fled. Each of the trees that he hit became the sort of wood that is used in fire making equipment.

Each of us was given a boomerang. We did our best to paint in aboriginal style the story, as the natives did to remember their traditions in place of having a written language. 

Here's my effort!

And Sid 2

I'd love to tell you that afterwards we just went into Cairns, had dinner and went to bed. But that would be boring.

We left on a minibus, waving goodbye to our hosts. It shouldn't have taken too long to get to Cairns. 

Suddenly the bus slowed and came to a stop. We parked up by a beaten up old Holden car with peeling paint and an ominous look, between a field of sugar cane and a creek. As we did so two motocross bikes and an old ute crash off the road and down along an informal track at the edge of the field. 

The radiator was broken, th engine over heated. Another vehicle would be coming to pick us up. Just a little while, wait it out.

We had a little explore. The disregarded look of the abandoned car increased as we found three bullet holes in the rear drivers side door. There was insurance paperwork on the drivers seat. Windows were cracked, but not broken. Someone was stupid enough to try a door. It was open. "Who want to check the boot for a dead body?"

Let's have a look at the sugar cane instead.

We'd been driving and taking trains past sugar cane fields since the day after Sydeny. Imagine how your lawn grass looks to an ant. That's what sugar cane looks like. The central stem in about the thickness of a broom handle. When ripe it can be snapped and the core is a fibrous sweet stick. I tried this 10 years ago when I was in Tanzania (10 years, where does the time go?!)

All this sugar cane is why Aussies eat Vegemite instead of Marmite. Marmite is made from the yeast filtered out during the making of beer. Whereas Vegemite is made from a mold that comes off the sugar canes. Weird Aussie ways.

New bus, trip to Cairns, out to hostel, slight mix up with out dinners but I got it eventually.

Crocodile meat!!!

It was a croc burger. Really nice. Flaky texture of fish but tasted like sweetened chicken. Couldn't eat a lot of it, but lovely as a burger.

Day 79: Canoes, Camping, and Campfire games

Monday 22nd February 

Canoeing down the river to see a lake of lilies and some Pelicans. Camping in the forest amongst ants, spiders, and 4 foot long monitor lizards.

Distance: Bus, 60km, canoe, 10km

Total Distance: 12562km

We hammered along the beaches of Fraser Island for over an hour. This brought us back to the barge, over the to main land, down some roads, through more forest, and out to our campsite for tonight. The tents were already set up. The Discovery company, who we'd been with for Fraser Island, use this place as a sort of natural hotel. But with long drop toilets. And no shower.

The afternoon was spent canoeing up the river. We went through more of the landscape of eucalyptus trees, vines, and brush. At one point I spotted a confused looking wallaby staring at us. Other than that, and a few spiders, we didn't spot much wildlife.

Late lunch was served at a small clearing by a jetty. From here we went out on to the lake. A few acres of lilies stretched out before us, small lilac flowers in a variety of stages of opening. We did our best not to disrupt the plants, paddling steadily through a channel, green pads surrounding us.

At the far end was the pelican colony formed around a small island. We paddled across the lake. This took us down, passed a larger island, and we snook up behind the Pelicans. Quietly we moved as a group around them, looking as they sat relaxing on their small trees and rocks. They're big birds, but lean.

Once back in camp we treated ourselves to a eucalyptus, tea tree and tannin infused bath. AKA a swim in the river. It was lovely, warm, and the current near the shore only light. We paddled about chatting as dinner was prepared. Back at camp we made wraps and fracked open our drinks- beers and goons. A goon is Aussie for a bag of wine (there's a bag inside that box of wine you buy). With this combo we had a steady evening of stories and games.

Game one: 

Round one- Name, Most hated housework, Reason

Eg

Ironing, it's tiring, pointless, and I get bored

Washing windows, once you've done the last one you have to go back and start again to keep them all clean

Washing dishes, im a perfectionist and I have to scrub out all the dirt

Laundry, I hate having to fold it all up

Vacuuming, I have 4 Persian cats and you can do it 4 times a day without any improvement

Round two- Name, "I hate sex because...", Reason from round one!

Game two

Modified Mafia/Werewolf, Aussie edition

Gangsters/werewolves- Dingoes

Protector- Paramedic - protects 1 per round

We made a new one- like Detective- Park Ranger - can sneakily wake during night to see Dingoes

There's better descriptions, but in short

Except special positions everyone's backpackers, who go "to sleep" at "night"

During the night the two Dingoes woke and picked a victim to die, then went back to sleep.

Next the Paramedic woke and picked a random person to protect

The Park Ranger could pretend to be asleep but see he Dingoes. However, if caught the Dingoes would, obviously, kill them next.

Come dawn the backpackers found out who was dead and protected. Dead was out. Everyone then discussed (argued) as to who the Dingoes were. We voted for someone and they were vigilante style killed, and we'd get to know what their position was. This did result in many more dead backpackers, but there were plenty to spare. 

The ranger did have some insight but, again, declaring it could lead to Dingoes killing them. Also they could be lying about their status. ie a "ranger" might be a Dingo. They just had to argue really well for a change.

Then the cycle continued until the Dingoes or backpackers won.

After a few games we retreated to our insect-free tents. Just had to be careful in the night- might run into a real dingo on the way to the toilet! Or in my case a 4ft long cousin of the monitor lizard

Day 81, 82, & 83: Sailing the Whitsundays

Wednesday 24th, Thursday 25th, Friday 26th, February 

Took boat out sailing, no swimming, just chilling

Nachos

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For two nights we lived aboard the British Defender, an ex-racing yacht.

We arrived at the quay mid afternoon. Thus our first day was a short one on our yacht. Sails were hoisted up the mast, volunteers helping by manning the winches. Under sail power we steadily moved out into the islands.

The Whitsundays sit at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. They are each green forested islands with coves, beaches, and surrounded by reefs. That night we would be staying in one of the coves. However, as with the following night, no swimming was allowed. The currents can run fast and aren't obvious. Though being swept away turns out to be just one more potentially lethal risk in these waters.

From the galley nachos appeared. We busily put them away as the rain closed in. Once it had fully arrived though canvas had been spread out from the boom (horizontal bit that sticks out of the mast). We were in a giant swag! After last night we made a few jokes as we ate the rest of dinner.

The next morning we set sail for Whitehaven cove. Here the sand is insanely pure. It's perfectly white. It reflects nearly all of the sun's heat, leaving it constantly cool, whilst threatening to tan your chin. This is due in part due to the singular source of the sand. A pure granite under the water that has been eroded away to form all the sand. This has been followed by thousands of years of washing of the sands by the sea removing impurities. The sands are shifted every day- no two trips here are the same.

This is also a sight for juvenile sharks, sting rays, and turtles. We saw one turtle as we moored on the far side of the island. At Whitehaven itself we saw one large sting ray-someone nearly stood on it despite our best efforts to ensure everything heard us coming. There were also a number of lemon sharks- so called due to their yellow colouring. Don't worry, they're less than a metre in length.

We were also, sort of, watching out for jellyfish. 

After the mandatory human pyramid, being cleaned with the world's purest sand, and checking out the little hidden beach, we got rain! It didn't last long. Just enough to make us retreat back to our depot of packs and gear. Group photo. Find the two absentees. Back to boat we go.

That afternoon I got to try out something I've been wanting to do for years. Most of the group went out snorkelling. Doing this was cheaper (gear was on our yacht) and gave them more time in the water. But I wanted to try out Scuba diving. An introductory course to try it out is being run by a company in the islands. We took mini British Defender over to their boat. It was filled with tanks and apparatus. Time to   become a dolphin. 

Jumping in involved standing on a small ledge of steel overhanging the watery abyss. Which worryingly reminded me of Bungy jumping . But without the plummet of 134m into a rocky stream. Which was nice.

Some people struggled with the fact that we had to solely breath through our mouths. It took some getting used to. I'm not sure I was doing it right- slow steady in, slow steady out. Like meditative breathing. However, I did have some buoyancy issues. As in my feet were at a level with everyone else's heads. We sort of solved this by the instructor putting a large camera in my pocket. Wasn't perfect though. I'll ask for more weights next time- I was on +8kg this time.

The visibility here isn't great at this time of year. The currents are wrong and there's lots of plankton in the area. Still it was an opportunity to try it out, whilst seeing the reef. We did see a lot of fish, some less than technicolour coral, but nothing too dangerous. I'd love to do a proper training course and be able to come back and see more of the reef. It gets much better as one travels further into it, apparently. Maybe another year.

That evening we had a costume party. We'd bought lots of fluorescent clothes, glow sticks, and I both a knock off lightsaber. Wonder what e other boats in the bay thought of us? Light show, loud music, some seamanly drinking. We had a great time of it. Then the yoga mats wre brought out and a few of us set up to sleep on the deck under the stars.

In the morning the boat set off, despite a lack of wind, bright and early. It was our last morning. We were set to make it count.

Being at the southern extent of the Great Barrier Reef there's some excellent spots for snorkelling. Having been to just one yesterday it would be a sate not to go to another. Turtles, parrotfish, soft coral, hard coral, and a multitude of tiny fish. All out by a sandy peninsula. 

Why did we have to leave for Ailisle Beach???

The afternoon was free. We slept, did laundry, hunted for wifi, and ran between the wonderful cover of air con. It was a humid 38C. What fun we had.

The hostel was an interesting cooperative resort run jointly by two of Austrilasia's largest hostel companies. Base and Nomads run nearly all of the larger hostels I've had to stay at- some are amazing and characterful, some are huge and sterile. In this one there were a number of little houses, seperated into apartments, each with a patio or balcony. There were a number of small pools, birds and flying foxes hanging around, the odd gecko feeding of the insects. If it wasn't for the heat it would be a lovely place.

We left at 4:20am...Day 84 was terrible....