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Australia

The Unforgettable Outback

By Ron Donoho
Australia

A guestroom window of the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney frames the city’s iconic opera house. Its sail-like roof is comfortably recognizable. In a country where something as vile as Vegemite is ingested, where I alone wear white socks with tennis shoes, and English is spoken but arranged in baffling ways—“flying foxes” are bats—the familiar building serves as nightlight and teddy bear.

The archetypical first trip to Australia involves a stop in Sydney, then a short flight to Cairns (to see the Great Barrier Reef) and an inland excursion to Ayers Rock, a behemoth that aborigines believe holds magical powers.

But that isn’t how my adventure is to play out.

Via Sydney, Adelaide and the Clare Valley wine country, here’s how I find myself on the lookout for wedgies (wedge-tail eagles, that is) and absorbed in the back-to-nature nature of the Outback.

First of all, smart idea that the five-star Four Seasons’ gym is open 24/7. You can work out at any hour, while your body adjusts to the 17-hour time difference from San Diego. The hotel is conveniently positioned at Sydney Harbor, near The Rocks, a historic quarter filled with an assemblage of Irish pubs and Italian restaurants.

Two short days after a Sydney introduction, it’s off to Adelaide. I stay near Victoria Square in the Medina Grand hotel, the city’s converted government Treasury House. Christopher Smyth of Tourabout Adelaide walks me around the 1 square mile that is Adelaide. We march down Rundle Street, the city’s shopping precinct. The tour includes a stop at the National Wine Centre. Fun technological wizardry: winemaker holograms who respond to keypad-punched questions.

The wine center is a precursor to the next day’s stop at Mount Horrocks Wines in the Clare Valley. I go barefoot, stomping grapes that will become winemaker Stephanie Toole’s 2003 Chiraz. And then it’s off to the Outback.

I’m not in a hurry to hit the bush. From Sydney to Adelaide to Clare Valley, we’re slowly shedding accouterments of citified life. But later, in hindsight, I’ll wish I’d had more time in the vast Outback. It’s a rare, spiritual adventure. Setting the tone: On the plane ride over I read Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist—about a shepherd who communes with nature while learning destinations in our lives aren’t as important as the journey.

Driving in the Outback is a near-parallel Alchemist experience.

Flinders Ranges is the general destination for this particular journey. One of the world’s oldest landscapes—interweaving arid mountains and dramatic plains —the area is named for British explorer Matthew Flinders. He first named Australia “Terra Australis Incognita” (the great unknown southern land).

The Wilpena Pound is our more specific destination. This circular mountain range resembles a dormant volcano, or asteroid crater. In fact, it was once an underwater coral reef. In two days, we hike up the mountains, take a four-wheel-drive tour over rugged terrain and fly over the Pound in a prop plane. A sunrise flight unveils Wilpena’s rocky mountains illuminated in shades of orange and red.

The pilot? Also the bartender from our hotel, the Wilpena Pound Resort. He soberly assures us his working worlds don’t collide.

Located inside a national park, the privately owned Wilpena Pound Resort has surprisingly spacious guestrooms, and serves rib-sticking food. Driving out of the park, we pull over to gawk at grazing wild kangaroos—abundant as American squirrels. They give us sideways stares, as if uninvited guests have crashed their party. I imagine one leggy native whispering, “That’s the car with the Yank wearing white socks with tennis shoes.”

On to the 60-room Prairie Hotel in Parachilna. The city’s entire population of seven—yes, seven—works at the hotel. It’s a popular roadside stop for backpackers, bikers and all manner of travelers. The lobby’s wooden bar also serves as the hotel’s front desk. The bartender can settle your room bill.

I’m surprised when the night bartender knocks on my door the next morning. She smiles. I smile back and ask, “What’s up?”

“I’m here to clean the room,” she says, still smiling. Everybody’s a happy multitasker in the Outback.

She cleans, and I check out.

The final word, from the hotel’s room guide: “We apologise [sic] for the lack of TV and phones in the rooms, but it’s a Prairie tactic to flush you out to soak up the environment. A setting sun is worth more than the evening news.”

Amen.

 

If You Go

Qantas flies direct from Los Angeles to Sydney. Flights are roughly 14-15 hours. A recent check found a $882 sale for a round trip, but prices vary. For more information on accommodations and activities, go to the South Australian Tourism Commission’s site, www.southaustralia.com, or call 949-476-4081.