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Friday 13th eek!
Got picked up at 6.15 for my 3 day 2 night tour to Uluru (used to be known as Ayers Rock but has now gone back to it's aboriginal name)
Back in Brisbane when I booked the tour all those weeks ago I opted for the safari in style - boy was I glad I paid the extra money.
Got onto the bus. There are 10 of us on the tour: Thomas and Tina from Switzerland, Franke and Heike from Germany, Angie and Alan from Wales, Roger and Kathy from New Zealand and Kirsten from Germany.
Set off for our first stop - the camel farm. You could ride the camel for $5 but seeing as we only had 15 mins there I was more interested in getting some brekkie!
We seemed to be driving for miles and it was the same scenery that I'd been looking at for the last 3 days - just desert. Have since learnt that Uluru is not a desert, it is a semi arrid area. It gets too much rainfall to be classed as a desert. Anyway, drifted off to sleep (that's not like me!) but woke up in time for a stop at the bottle shop for some wine!
Finally made it to Yulara which is where were camping for the night. I use the word camping loosely because we actually had tents which were more like little houses. They had wood flooring and beds with duvets. I really know how to rough it!!
After lunch we headed to Kata Tjuta (or otherwise known as The Olgas) It means "many heads" and is a rock formed of around 36 steep sided domes. We had a good 2 hour walk through them. Kata Tjuta is sacred to men of the Anangu people. Some parts are not allowed to me walked on. The whole of Kata Tjuta is off limits to all Anangu women.
Our last stop of the day before heading back to camp was the sunset at Uluru. We had champagne whilst watching the sunset - It was spectaular to see the colour of the rock changing in the sun - I hope my photos have done it justice.
Back to camp for dinner. Steak tonight and more wine - excellent! Sat around the camp fire keeping warm but headed to bed around 9.30. My bedtime outfit consisted of leggings, jogging bottoms, socks, long sleeved top, t. shirt and 2 hoodies! Should be warm in that!
Saturday 14th
Up at 5.30! Woke to the smell of bacon and eggs being cooked in the kitchen. Wow, am being fed really well.
We were driven to Uluru and dropped off at the base ready to walk around it. It was 7am and bloody freezing! The walk was 9.4km. I can't say that I took too much notice of what it looked like for about 30 mins because my head was covered in my many hoods and I was looking at the floor! Once it warmed up I started to enjoy it. I can't really describe what it looked like so take a look at the pics.
Finishsed that in about 2 hours and then met up with our guide Geoff who took us to another part of the rock where the Mala people lived. The stories are fascinating about how they lived, what they ate etc....
I had decided to pack the most inappropriate footwear ever. The saying springs to mind "you can take the girl out of Essex but you can't take the Essex out of the girl!" I was wearing some canvas pumps which had been ruined by the red sand at Uluru and were also rubbing on my poor little toes. I had some open toed walking shoes back at the camp so changed into those - heaven!
We drove to our next campsite and I was assured there was no more walking for the rest of the day - hurrah!
Had another lovely dinner- chicken, veg and rice followed by chocolate cake! The wine was flowing too. It was such a lovely setting - wine, camp fire and fantastic people. By now, we had all got to know each other and I was feeling very pleased that I had picked this tour. Also had a go on the dijeridoo (sorry about the spelling!) I was terrible and only managed to produce a few fart sounds - still, they were pretty good!
A local man had brought his telescope over to our camp so we could look at a few things. The sky in Australia is AMAZING! You can see the Milky way (no, not the chocolate bar!). I looked at Jupiter through the telescope and was amazed at how clear it was to see. I could have stayed there all evening looking at the stars.
Sunday 15th.
Woo hoo - got a lie in today and was up at 6.00.
Another lovely brekkie of pancakes, toast and cereal.
One last walk today and that's at Kings Canyon. It will take us around 3 hours to have a guided tour around the canyon. It all started with a walk up what is known as heart attack hill!! It's around 100m high and is the only hard part of the walk. Off we went and started to climb. My god, I am so unfit although I think I'm starting to develop calf muscles!
Made it to to top and started our tour. I will let my photos to do the talking and will describe each one.
One last stop for lunch and then back on the bus for the long journey back to Alice Springs. It took around 4 hours to get back. Got back to the hostel around 7 and arranged to meet the tour group for dinner. I ordered my first kangaroo and it was delicious! I felt a bit bad to be eating skippy.
Headed back to the hostel for my last cold night in Alice Springs! It was a fabulous tour and I'm glad to be leaving Australia on a high note.
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