On Saturday the 20th (of May), I had another 5.30am start to join a Desert Venturer four day bus tour from Cairns to Darwin. It was part of my Oz Experience pass that would take me all the way around Australia in a big loop and this section is run by Desert Venturer.
A bus met us at our respective hostels and took everyone to the bus that we'd be travelling on in the next four days. The first thing that struck me was the size and quality of the vehicle. Instead of the normal coaches or extended minibuses, the coach we would be in was similar to a standard lorry, but with 4-wheel-drive and only 25 seats. There was a huge amount of legroom, a plasma TV, a decent sound system and plenty of space to store your luggage. It was like having a first class seat for the price of an economy ticket.
We set off westwards, first passing through the cyclone damaged Atherton Tablelands and then stopping for a brief walk down to Millstream Falls. Soon after, the rainforest disappeared and the Outback beckoned. The change was gradual, but definitely noticeable. The lack of traffic, buildings and infrastructure gives you an ever increasing sense that you're venturing into the middle of nowhere.
We got to Mount Surprise at midday and stopped at the town there for lunch. Of course, the word 'town' is a bit misleading because Australians only use 'town' then 'city', whereas in Britain you have 'hamlet', 'village', 'town' and 'city'. So an Aussie town might have about five people living there, whereas a UK town would have at least 10,000.
After lunch we were introduced to a local who would give us a snake demonstration. This guy, whose name I forget (probably Bruce), had just about every native Australian snake in his barn. We got to handle a few of them, mainly pythons and see feeding time, where he put a live mouse into a cage with a snake and well, 'let them get on with it'. It was a pretty interesting stop though and a useful insight into how snakes work, even if it was a bit gruesome at times! Australia contains the vast majority of the world's most deadly snakes, not least the Black Headed Taipan, whose bite can kill 200 grown men. That's something you don't want to step on!
We drove on, passing into what increasingly looked like savannah. The rest of the day was spent driving and after a brief trip to Lake Belmore for sunset, we arrived in Croydon (no, not the one in London) at about 6pm. To give you an idea of what it was like, we stayed in the only two-storey building in town!
