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Day 66
Arrived in Alice Springs this afternoon, it is so hot at the moment. We are leaving
tomorrow for a 3 day safari around Uluru and Kings Canyon. Don't think there is any rain
forecast, well we hope not anyway as we are camping for 2 nights. Having said that we
also don't want it to be too humid, we were told it can get up to 100% humidity so very
uncomfortable if it gets like that. Although we have only been here for less than 1 day,
Alice seems to be quite a strange place. There are lots of nice things to see and do here
particularly walks and reptile centres but local life consists mostly of sitting around in
the streets and on grass verges not doing an awful lot.. Early night tonight as we are
being picked up an 5.30am tomorrow morning.
Day 67, 68 & 69
We left Toddys backpackers early on our first morning and had a 5 hour drive to our campsite at Uluru (Ayers Rock), it was broken up with a few stops along the way including a camel farm. Before doing anything else we cooked our lunch and then headed to 'Kata Tjuta' or the 'Olga's' as they are otherwise known. We were going to do a walk called the valley of wings but as it was too hot our guide opted for a shorter walk and we did the 'Wilpa Gourge' walk instead. Kata Tjuta is fantastic and some say it is nicer to look at than Uluru while on our tour we also saw Mount Conor which looks a lot like Uluru, similar in size but has a flatter surface at the top. We then went to an Aboriginal cultural centre to learn more about the Aboriginal traditions and beliefs. We ended the day by watching the sunset over Uluru (in a thunder storm!).
Next day we were up at 3.50am and had left our camp by 5am to make our way to a viewing point to watch the sunrise over Uluru. By 7am we had started our 3 1/2 hour walk around the base of Uluru. Although it was hard getting up that early it made the walks a lot easier as it was much cooler. We have never drank so much water! I think in total we had around 9 litres each that day, and according to our guide that still wasn't enough. After our walk around Uluru we did a short cultural walk given by an Aboriginal lady called Valerie, she explained all about the different sacred parts of the rock itself including where the 'yound fella's' learned to hunt and where the the girls become women. We spent the rest of the day driving to Kings Canyon which was another 6 hour drive. When we arrived at our camp for the night we started a bbq for dinner and had Roo meat (Kangeroo), and Camel sausages - both delicious. Camping that night wasn't fantastic as it poured down with rain and there was a huge storm just over head. Thankfully all our stuff and beds stayed dry!
Started our final day with a walk in 'Watarrka' National Park where Kings Canyon is situated. We did a 2km kings creek walk which took around an hour by the time you had enjoyed the views. Some others opted to do the canyon walk which took them around 4 hours. Would have been great to do this walk but would have needed hiking boots which we didn't bring with us. Which ever walk you did you got some amazing views around the canyon and some great photos. Drive back to Alice Springs took about 6 hours and we got back to our hostel at about 5pm, all we wanted to do was eat some dinner and crash out. Leave Alice tomorrow for Melbourne, our last stop in Australia.
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