Uluru

We arrived in at our Uluru base camp at around 4pm and set off straight to Uluru to take in the sunset over this iconic setting. Our guide said that we should go then as it would be the best time and probably our only opportunity due to the weather forecast. This would of course prove to be accurate.

The first thing I though was that it surprised me how small it really is. But it is still a magnificent sight. Of course we all took along some goon & a beer to toast the rock.
Back to base camp for our bbq dinner.

That night we camped on a view point overlooking Uluru as the sun went down. It was quite an amazing time. After the sun went down it was pitch black and dealdy quiet. We could hear nothing at all. Not sure if thats a good thing although am sure something landed on my swag at some point in the night!!! It was strangely the best nights sleep I have had in the whole 5 months I have had in Australia. Nothing quite like sleeping under the stars with just your sleeping bag, swag, and 20 people. Truely amazing.

Waking up as the sun comes up to the sound of a distant dingo was amazing as well. Still no signs of snakes and spiders as well :)

After breakfast we set off for the rock. Obviously it was now raining as it would for virtually the rest of our trip. I mean you come to the desert what do you expect. We were told that it has been the wettest in over a decade so the desert is no longer the famous scorched red but vibrant with bushes and grasses. We stopped off for "rain coats" which turned out to be bin liners so we all looked rather fetching doing the base walk of Uluru. Quite a strange place as you learn how sacred the site is for the aborigines and we really should respect that more. Although that said we all still took loads of pics.

When we got back to the camp our guide informed us of a nearby 5 star hotel that we could sneek into and make use of their pool and cocktail waitresses if we fancied it. As you can well imagine it didnt take long for a group of backpackers to say yes to a bit of luxury!!! So wet set off on the bus with Mission Impossible music ringing out as we made small strategic drops off at the hotel entrances so as not to draw too much attention. Although 20 backpackers in a hotel pool 10 minutes later was not that discreet. Funny as it was so cold and and spitting with rain but we didnt care although the weather did scare off the cocktail waitresses.

We tried another sunset and sunrise but were thwarted by the weather. Spirits remained high though and merely joked about the weather. Cant beat that backpacker spirit. The weather would continue at the Olgas and then Kings Canyon but it never slowed us down - a really good group of people meant that we just had laugh after laugh. Our guide als pointed out when we saw massive waterfall, that he had never seen one there. We still took a dip in the waterhole called Garden of Eden which was awesome.

It was sad arriving in Alice Springs knowing that this would be our last night together. We checked into our various hostels before meeting up for dinner which was great fun. We then headed to Bojangles a local bar done up like a mid west saloon with swing doors as well!!! The bar had a webcam which people from round the world can log on and see you and their is an option to buy someone in the bar a drink. One of the German girls dad bought her a drink. My dad sadly did not despite logging on and seeing me :(

And so ended our trip. Alice Springs blog to follow. I really neesd to do these more often as forget so much stuff. Speak soon world!!!