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After being turned down by the trip I had planned to start from Alice Springs, I decided to go on a shorter like-minded trip to see at least the main-attraction of Northern Territory. So, I started my adventure down here in Aussie-land early Friday morning at 6am with The Rock Tour-bus heading towards the Red Centre. After many hours of driving, passing many different animals, wild ones. We saw heaps of camels, kangaroos, wallabies, dingoes, cows and emus and other wildlife - and lots of nothingness. It was really interesting - the further we got, the more remote it got. When we arrived at Kings Canyon, we walked all the way around (14 km) in the heat, but wow, it was beautiful there. In the evening we made a big bun-fire, cooked a nice meal and rolled our swags out prepared ourselves to sleep under the open sky - and then it started. Completely unbelievable rain - thunderstorm and heavy rainfall was surrounding us right out there in nowhere, "where it never rains"! What a joke! Everything was wet and our bush-camping was ruined, but hey, we've got to sleep there. So I climbed under the trailer with another girl, willamein from Netherlands, and we tried to get some sleep. Early next morning it was still raining. Really unbelievable!! The guide said he had never seen this amount of rain in the 2 years he had worked there. We went that day to see The Olgas(Kata Tjuta), mountains in the middle of the flat bushland. We walked again lots of kilometres and at least we dried;)
In the evening we drove to Ayers Rock(Uluru) and watched the sunset. It was amazing!! Another night of (this time dry) bushcamping under the clear sky was awaiting us, and that in Ayers Rock Resort with even warm showers. An English girl from the group and me went to another camp, where the street choir from Sydney made a small concert. It was such a blessing - to see these homeless, ex-alcoholic or drug-addicted people shining with nervous pride and happiness over their work. They had written all the songs themselves and it was really songs from the heart, touching and given everyone listening a "feel good"-feeling. It was great!! Sleeping alongside with huge (read giant) spiders, lizards and all sorts of "crawly" creatures was not so great. But when you first sleep, its fine and as we the next morning drove to watch sunrise over Uluru following a 10km basewalk around, I was fit enough and enjoyed the very seldom sight we had = waterfalls down the sides of Uluru have so far been seen by only a few. It was amazing, and a really nice end of the 3 day tour. I got dropped off at the Ayers Rock Airport and later flew to Cairns. Slept in a nice hostel there and got picked up early the next morning from my present working-place. It is north of Cairns in the rainforest (dry though at the moment), on a really cool Adventure Centre where they do horse riding tours or ATV tours (quad bikes) and I will be working there for the next few weeks, assisting the guides and helping the guests. Straight after arrival I got put on a horse and went out with a group to see the surroundings. It is really beautiful and even though it is dry, it is 500m above sea level and quite cool and windy - nice outdoor working temperatures. In the afternoon I went as well on an ATV tour (any guy and I bet most people in general would love this, its so much fun!!). It was really cool! My room though looks more like a garden shed (yes it is worse than in Camphill!), the mattress is like a valley and worn out, there is dirt and dust everywhere, and we have "restricted showers". The most annoying thing was though that I did not really feel welcome here, everybody minding their own business and not really inviting me to join in. I felt a bit lost, especially in these situations where I felt I was expected to help out. I am luckily enough pretty outgoing myself and just ask questions, but still. I hope it gets better. I will work 4 days, then have 2 days off;) Today I already started as tour leader, riding up in front and getting lost on all these miles of land here, but it was quite funny in anyway. I like the work here, hope I will get to know and like the people as well a little bit more. Well, that's it for now!
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