My last day in Melbourne was spent at the library to see a free exhibition of an Australian photographer's celebrity photos. I was especially interested since the majority of the photos were of musicians and the write ups on each one were just as good as the photos. After an amazing noon breakfast (hashbrowns of feta, sweet potatoes and basil somehow works) in the suburb of St. Kilda I headed back to town for window shopping (no room in my bag or my budget for the real thing!) before getting the grand driving tour of the city from Gavin. Oh, by suburb I don't mean the type we think of - Australians use the term how we would use neighborhood. What we call a suburb they would call a town. All very confusing.
I got up at the crack of dawn to catch my flight and once again was thrilled to have the benefits of the Qantas Club. I slept until the last minute, then showered and had my free breakfast at the airport. I have determined that the use of these "business clubs" is completely lost on those traveling for business. When I traveled for work, I would rarely have time to spend in these clubs, as we were usually working right up until it was time to head to the airport. I had no use for free showers, as my hotels were quite nice, and free meals and internet were irrelevant too as I had an expense account for that. Funny how that works - being able to go to these clubs has saved me so much money!
The flight to Alice Springs was quite interesting. I was the youngest person on my flight by at least 25 years, except for the 4 tour guides, which was quite a change from the hostel I had just left behind. One of the guides sat next to me and told me about his job taking groups of people around Australia. Very similar to the job I used to do about 10 years ago. I told him I had left it because of the low pay but that I had really enjoyed it at the time. He remarked that actually you can do quite well at some of these tour companies, as they prefer their guides a bit older and recognize that it's difficult for those over 30 to be out of town for extended periods of time. Interesting that you can pay a 24 year old nothing to do this job, as their just thrilled to be sent overseas, but you have to pay a 34 year old quite well as an incentive. So I'm doing a bit of research into some companies that he recommended and may see if that's something I could do when I get home. (He works for an Australian company, so isn't of much use to me there!)
I was looking forward to the hot weather of Alice Springs (and I certainly got it - over 100 degrees most of the time) and had planned to spend my first afternoon just doing laundry and sitting by the pool. It sounded great in theory, but the pool lounging got old after about 30 minutes and my laundry dried in seconds (literally) so I headed out on a 4-wheeler tour of the local cattle station. So much fun! We flew over old creek beds and I realized how much tamer it would have been if it had been in the US - the old liability issue. We also learned how the cattle station works. It's amazing how technology has changed it. Now they muster the cattle with helicopters and 4 wheelers instead of horses. Still, it's not exactly the life for me! Storms can sometimes cut off cattle stations from the rest of the world for months and doctors have to be flown in via helicopter.
As for the Outback, it was a really enjoyable trip and I'm glad I took the time to see that part of the country. I had asked for opinions from others who had been to Australia, and it seemed to be divided as to whether it was worth it. Part of the enjoyment, of course, came with being around a group of fun people. We had 19 people of about a dozen different nationalities crammed into a mini bus for 3 days - now that's how to bond! Included in our menagerie were:
- Hungary
- Holland
- England
- Wales
- Ireland
- Hong Kong
- Taiwan
- France
- Germany
- Austria
- US (that would be me)
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