Alice Springs – The Rock Tour

No Rest for the Wicked!

With just one night and one mornings rest following the Kakadu tour, Jess and I were on a plane to Alice Springs. The next day, I would start The Rock Tour – a three day tour of Uluru, Kata-Tjuta and Kings Canyon. Jess had already enjoyed the delights of the Red Centre with her boyfriend Paul, so it was just me to go!

We arrived in Alice Springs, on a much bigger plane, although we did manage to cross over a storm along the way and as we landed over the mountains, the wind below gave rise to a little turbulence. Thank goodness I had the window seat as it is the only way I can overcome being very very scared when the planes starts to rock from side-to-side.

Jess and I spent the afternoon recovering from our flight. We strolled through Alice Springs, a lovely little town. I noticed there were a lot more Aborigines here than in Broome. We treated ourselves to some nice red wine and settled down to mixed-cold Tapas. Delicious, and not total traveller style, but nevermind!

Day 1

At 6am the following morning, I left Jess in the hands of the hostel manager Lyndsey, whilst I was picked up and whisked away on the Rock Tour bus. Dan, the tour guide, decided to move the itinerary around a little, so that by midday, Uluru was in our sights. I will admit that I had a little moment. For I was re-tracing my mothers steps when she was in the RAF, and secondly, I was visiting the Red Rock is something that I had always dreamed about, and now this dream was reality. Bloody hell, I have made it across the other side of the world and what I had seen in photographs was now right before my eyes. Thank you Grandpa Roddy for sending me the books to inspire me of such amazing wonders of the world.

To wet our appetites, Dan first took us to a picnic spot for lunch. From there I could see Uluru in the distance. Dan is a fountain of knowledge and enlightened us on the history of the Aborigines in Australia, how White Man used to treat the Aborignes (put it this way, it is pretty sad and they did not even see them as the same species), how things have changed between the Aborigines and White Man since the 1980’s (can you believe it is only since then!), and how we view the Aborigines and the Red Centre today. As a quick summary, all land has now been given back to the Aborgines and they once again own their land, including Uluru (formerly Ayers Rock named by a White Man). Uluru is a sacred place and the Aborigines asked you not to climb it – so I did not. I could go on all about the things that I learned during this trip, but I will not because you will end up reading a book and not a journal.

After lunch, Dan drove us around Uluru, then we visited the Aborginal Cutural Centre – again very informative, and then….. the best bit, we got to walk the perimeter of the entire rock! I started off walking with and talking to my fellow tour mates, but it was not long before I had lost them all. I was enchanted and forever stopping to look at the rock close-up or take another photograph. Strangely, I did not feel alone walking around the Uluru, and I was not the only one to say this. Strange hey!

I did not appreciate quite how big Uluru was and felt it when I got back to the bus a few hours later. No rest though, and Dan led us along the Mala walk and pointed out how the Aborgines used Uluru to live, including Grandma’s House, the Chapel, the kitchen and paintings and story telling. It was so interesting. By now, it was fast approaching sunset, so Dan whisked us off to spot to watch the sunset. As you may imagine, we were not the only ones with this in mind and I had to fight with three Japanese girls to squeeze a photograph in. It was beautiful and on return to the bus, we were greeted with Peanut Sate noodles and veg.

What must have been one of the most exciting parts of this tour came next – sleeping in swags. It was beautiful to roll out the swag, slip beneath my sleeping bag, feel the warmth of the bonfire and gaze up to see a million stars, including the Southern Cross and a satellite. I am sure I heard a Dingo in the night, but it may have been Rich coughing. Anyway, Dan rudely awakened us at 5am the following morning to watch the sun rise over Uluru and Kata-Tjuta, our stop for today. We ate breakfast in the car park – lovely and set-off for another day’s delights.

Day 2

Kata-Tjuta is what used to be known as the Olgas. They are basically very bog rocks that have been subject to tectonic activity and subsequent weathering. The wind blows through Kata-Tjuta, hence the name for the Valley of the Winds. I very much enjoyed walking through Kata-Tjuta; the rocks are soooo big, the views go on for as far as the eye can see and the place is very very peaceful. I did feel privileged to see the sites at Kata-Tjuta, as many of them are Aboriginal Men’s areas and women are not generally allowed to go.

We arrived at our second nights camp at around 6pm. Kings Canyon Park was somewhat more civilised than our bush-site we slept in previously and to my delight had Kangaroo rescue centre! It also had a pool, which others and I jumped in straight away. It was beautiful. We met back at camp to drink wine and eat a mixture of mince, veg, rice and mash, which sounds not to good, but tasted delicious. We played Dan’s drinking game, called Cowboys, which was hilarious, and I played the Didgeridoo for the first time. I was inspired and mine is now already back in Blighty. Again, we slept in swags beneath the stars and a blowing wind was the only thing to wake me up before Dan the tour guide at 5.30am.

Day 3

By 7.00am, it was already 26 degrees at Kings Canyon! So, we got the big climb to the top over and done with straight away. The views just got more and more beautiful as we climbed up the steep rocks. It was here that part of Pracilla Queen of the Desert was filmed. Today, unlike yesterday which was a geology day, was a botanical day, and Dan opted to tell us all about the plants in Kings Canyon and how they could be used for medicinal purposes etc. Again, if I wrote about this, you would be reading a book, so I will just tell you about the bark of tree (called Ghost Gum) that can be rubbed and on your hands will be a white chalk-like material that can be used as sunscreen. Pretty amazing!

The rock at Kings Canyon was a geologist dream: shale, overlain by at least 0.75km of marine sandstone. It was even possible to see the fossil of a jelly fish - pretty rare! In amongst the strata was an ampitheatre, the north and south walls and the lost city. Also, deep inside the rock was The Garden of Eden. Here we swam!

It was cold; a fair cry from the warm waters of the pools at Kakadu. The swim was worth it (not only because I was very hot); but beacuase Dan led us to a sacred spot secretly hidden behind the trees at the far end of the pool (normally reserved for Aboriginal men). The spot was a dry waterfall that would be reactivated during the wet-season. From there we gazed into the distance of King's Canyon, seeing it from a view than many don't have the opportunity to. Again, I felt very priviledged.

On our return, we peeked over the edge of the cliff that makes Kings Canyon. I was pretty scared and stuck ridgedly to our orders from Dan to only approach and retreat from the cliff edge on uor bellies. The sight was awesome and we could see the dry waterfall where we had just been standing. Simply stunning.

Well, that brings me to the end of the Rock Tour. Of course, the day ended with a tour-group dinner and a few bevoirs after that, which was damn good fun. I did take it easy, as like all of my travels here in Australia, I was on the move once again the next day - this time a flight to Cairns.

Lots of Love, Em x