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Hi everyone,
Another update from our travels...We've managed to squash quite a lot in during the last few days. On Saturday morning we got up early to catch the Ghan train, one of the greatest train journeys in the world. Named after the Afghani camel trains, building first started in 1877, but owing to economic depression, world wars and adverse weather conditions, it wasn't completed until 2004! The line goes all the way from Darwin to Adelaide in South Australia. We caught it to Alice Springs, which took 26 hours! The scenery started to change as we travelled along, with the greenery disappearing, and the trees becoming small shrubs. We stopped for three hours in Katharine that afternoon for lunch, and other than that we were on the train! We got off, after an ok-ish night's sleep on Sunday morning at 11.
We spent a couple of days in Alice Springs. On the Sunday we didn't get up to too much, but went out for a fancy meal that evening, where I pushed the boat out and had three-courses of interesting Aussie food. I started with an emu and beetroot salad, then kangaroo steak with sweet potato, and a wattleseed pavlova for dessert. They were all really good! Joe and Jo were more conventional, opting for fish and chips and BBQ ribs respectively. The Monday was a much more interesting day. We hired bikes, which were delivered to our hostel at 10. We rode these out to Alice Springs Desert Park, which as its name suggests, is out in the desert, right under the beginning of the West MacDonnell range of mountains. We got some great pictures of desert scenery, and we loved the park, ending up spending most of the day there. It was set in three different zones, the riverbed, the sands, and the woodlands, all unique desert habitats supporting particular kinds of wildlife. We saw loads of birds, the most impressive being the kingfishers, bee-eaters, red-tailed cockatoos and an electric blue wren. The best part for me, however, was the nocturnal house, where we managed to see loads of native Aussie marsupials, such as wallabies, bilbys, quolls and bettonys. That afternoon we got the chance to see emus and kangaroos whilst wandering round. We even saw a joey in its pouch!
On Tuesday morning we got up early (5.30), to start our Rock tour, to Kings Canyon (Watarrka), Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) and Uluru (Ayers Rock). We spent a lot of the day driving, but it was made slightly more entertaining as we all had to go to the front of the minibus and introduce ourselves with a microphone, and also were given whiteboard pens to draw all over the windows! I attempted to draw a badger, which drew some bemused expressions! Our first destination was Kings Canyon, where we completed a four hour walk around the canyon's rim. We got some really good views down into the chasm, and half way round even got the chance to swim at the 'Garden of Eden'. Throughout the walk, we kept stopping every now and then so our guide could talk about Aboriginal culture associated with the Canyon as well as bush tucker. At one point we crawled on our hands and knees to avoid vertigo, so that we could look over the edge. After finishing the walk we drove over to Curtin Springs, where we were going to make camp for the night. We stopped twice on the way over, once to collect firewood (a big mission in itself, knocking branches off trees!) and the second time to get some drinks for the evening. We had a huge fire which we camped around in our swags, an Aussie institution of sleeping bag/crash mat, that we could put our own sleeping bags inside. It was really comfortable and very atmospheric, looking up at the stars.
Yesterday was another early start, waking at 5.30 and having just enough time to grab breakfast and roll up our swags before we were off again for the day. We spent our morning at Kata Tjuta, 36 domed rocks next to each other, and covered in the same deep red colour as Uluru, which when next to each other form some really captivating valleys and gorges. We walked to both the Karu Lookout and Karingana Lookout and were rewarded with some stunning views. That afternoon was spent at the Uluru Cultural Centre, which had some interesting exhibitions and displays inside on tjukurpa (Aboriginal law, religion and custom), and a great little book full of letters from people who have taken rocks from the park, and feeling remorseful or that bad luck had befallen them, have returned them. From here we began the Mala walk, which starts at the base of the climbing point of Ayers Rock. Some people were still climbing the rock, even though the Anangu (the local Aboriginal people) ask that you don't to respect their beliefs...Noone in our group wanted to though! The Mala walk was really interesting and we were able to see marks in the rocks that related to stories that we had read about in the cultural centre, Aboriginal art and weird cave formations. That evening was spent watching the sun go down whilst we ate at the Ayers Rock sunset viewing point. We got some funny pictures of us pretending to squat on it, stand on it etc, as well as some more normal photos. Uluru does really live up to the hype...it's really solitary, but postcards don't do its different moods at sunrise and sunset justice, or reveal the caves, holes, markings and crevices that make up its entire outer circumference.
This morning proved to be yet another early one, getting up at 5.30 again and then going to see the sun rise over Uluru. It changed before our eyes from a black hulk to a dark, dusty red, before its dazzling red hue came through when the sun came fully up. We completed the Uluru base walk this morning, walking around the entire outer circumference, which took nearly two hours. We'd finished this by 9, and began the long journey back to Alice Springs. On the way back we stopped to have a look at a thorny devil, a lizard that looks like its covered in thorns, which had ventured into the road and we nearly ran over! We also stopped at a racing camel farm, where, as well as camels, they had llamas, alpacas, a pet dingo, emus and some kangaroos. We fed some of the kangaroos, including a joey, some grass from behind the fence. We finally arrived back in Alice at 5, and had a long hot shower after three days on the road.
Tonight we're meeting up with our group for a meal at The Rock bar and restaurant, and then tomorrow we fly to Cairns, Queensland, where we're planning to go diving in the Great Barrier Reef!
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