Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hi everyone,
I hope that you are all very well!
Well I don't even know where to start. This may be the longest journal entry ever so u may need to take some time out to read this!
We left Sydney 8 days ago and it has been crazy, we have not stopped since!
We arrived in Alice Springs which is a tiny town near to Uluru and the next day we went on a 3 day camping and treking adventure! I am sure that you all realise that Becky is not the camping and treking type!
Strangely I really enjoyed it, which was a good thing because we had already booked onto another trip 2 days later in Darwin!
The rock tour included Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon. The first day was Uluru where we visited the Aboriginal cultural centre and learnt about the history of the land, which was only handed back to the Aboriginal people in the 1980s and is now protected by being a National Park. We then took part in the 10km base walk around Uluru (who knew a rock could be so big!) which took 2.5 hours and was really beautiful, the rock has so much texture and colour variations and up close looks very different from the pictures. We also watched the sunset over Uluru.
The evening of Day 1 we camped in the middle of no where so had no "creature comforts" and we were introduced to the art of the bush toilet which involves digging a hole with a spade! Of course none of the girls could go alone (especially after the talk about dangerous bush creatures) therefore a toilet trip ended up as more of an expedition with one person carrying the torch, one the spade, one the toilet paper and the final person finding the spot that was secluded with soft ground so that you are able to dig! As you can imagine this was not a 5 min trip and led to a lot of laughter!
Day 2 we were woken at 4am after about 3 hours sleep as our tour guide "Diesel" managed to score some boxes of wine (goon) from other tour guides who were on trips with the more mature travellers who did not drink their supplies and so we had a drinking session. We slept in "swags" which are like sleeping bags but with a thin mattress at the bottom so we feel asleep under the stars which was really beautiful! The 2 Canadian girls Niki and Jess were scared of the bush creatures and therefore decided to sleep in one swag, its about as big as a sleeping bag so I can't think that it was comfortable.
Day 2 we went to watch the sunrise over Uluru, but we were too far away and my camera couldn't take a picture that showed Uluru but I got a nice picture of the sunrise though! The we headed to Kata Tjutu (The Olgas) and even though we started the trek at 7.30am it was still unbearably hot, this walk was approx 8km and took us a couple of hours and involved quite a bit of uphill rock climbing! We then headed to utter bliss (a campsite with a shop, pool and most importantly toilets and showers!) and stayed there for the night and even had a camp fire!
Day 3 (another 4am start) we went to my favourite place so far Kings Canyon, it was a bit of a trek (4.5 hours in total) with "heart attack hill" at the beginning of the trek which is literally climbing straight up for about 30mins+ but the views were just amazing and there is an area where a natural water pool has appeared and so we went for a swim. The area is called "the garden of Eden" which is quite fitting I think!
We then heading back to Alice Springs were we went out for dinner and drinks which was hilarious. We went to an old fashioned tavern that had the doors like in the old western movies. It is about the only bar in Alice so it had a real mix of people and the music was very cheesy but was such good fun especially when our tour guide "diesel" got ditched by his girl and started trying it on with one of the Canadian girls Niki! It turned into a late night and then we had to be up to catch our flight to Darwin the next morning!
The tour was just amazing, the group was fantastic and the tour guide was a good laugh and of course the sights were just beautiful.
There were 10 of us in the tour group, 2 more English (a couple in their 30s), the Canadian girls (our age), a German girl (late 20s), a Dutch guy (20) and and Italian couple (30s) who were only on holiday for a few weeks.
We arrived in Darwin on Sunday and so just expored a little, went to the see the beach (u can't swin because of the creatures) and went out for dinner and then had a reasonably early night as we had a 6am start.
Kakudu National Park was the destination of our next 3 day trip. Day 1 we went straight to the Adelaide river where we held snakes and went on a croc cruise which was great! (I got some excellent pics!) then we headed to Ubirr where parts of Croc Dundee were filmed (will have to watch that again!) and also looked at some Aboriginal art work at Nourlangie. That evening we headed to the campsite which had the creature comforts and we sampled some Oz food including Kangaroo and Buffalo sausages which are both nice!
Day 2- we headed to Jim Jim falls which is a dry waterfall as it only flows in the wet season and the Twin falls where there is a flowing waterfall. We then went to a resort where we could swim and have a shower before heading to Yellow waters where we watched the sunset.
Day 3- Our group fell from 9 to 5 as some were only on a 2 day trip which meant more room on the very cramped (non air conditioned) 4x4. We headed to Maguk Barramundie which was cool, it had loads of underwater tunnels (I didn't go in as they are only as wide as 2 people and I don't like small spaces) but I had a much needed swim! We also saw some termite mounds which were massive and then went to Berry Springs for another swim before heading back to Darwin! I had to do all of this swimming in shorts and top as the night before my bikini went missing from the truck. The tour guide said that it might have fallen out of the truck and the Dingos may have got it but we had another theory that he may steal womens clothes as he is a drag queen! Either way there is either a stylish Dingo or Aussie man wearing my bikini!!!
As Kakadu is a wetland area it is full of insects and so I have been bitten all over and they are really itchy and swollen which looks so attractive! This place is also too hot, as from 7am until 7pm it is a minimum of 38 degrees with no wind and u just sweat constantly hence why I am on the internet in the air conditioning between 2-4pm! I really like the evenings though as you can sit outside and look at the stars in your little dress and thongs (flip flops not undies)!!!
We got back to Darwin last night and went out for dinner and a few drinks with a few of the girls from the group and were in bed by 12 for some much needed zzzzzzzzzs! We moved hostels this morning and are now staying in a nice hostel in the centre of town with pool, Jacuzzi, big kitchen, nice showers etc. We leave Darwin at 5am on Saturday so will probably head out tonight to experience the nightlife of Darwin and apart from that just generally relax.
Next stop is Cairns which should be slightly cooler where will will stay for a few days waiting for Hannah to arrive and then we will head down the East Coast!
Well that it is for now. I hope that you enjoy my photos and hope that I haven't bored u to death with my very long journal entry. I'm getting those of you back who said that I don't write enough or put up enough pictures!
Mum- I would just like to add that the reason that I have my hair tied back in all of the pics is because I had no choice as I couldn't wash my hair and it was too hot to wear it down!!!
Take care all
Becks xxxx
- comments