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Drought my ARSE!!!
Our flight to Alice Springs was good although Katherine was convinced that there must have been a terrorist threat for the well known Western icon of Alice Springs as all of our flight attendants were male, buff and not camp so obviously not flight attendants but part of the secret service. When we arrived the weather was good, not too hot and our spirits were high. The hostel that STA had recomended (YHA) was pretty grotty and charged the earth to stay there, it was also full of old ish men with BIG beards that just used to hang around the hostel all day being odd. After finally managing to lock the door we had an early night all ready to join our tour of Uluru the next day.
Our first stop of the day was at a camel farm where we got to ride a camel which was fun, the it was off to Kata Tjuta (the olgas) which are really pretty. However, we got half way through the Vally of the Winds walk before the heavens opened and it didn't stop raining for the best part of TWO DAYS!!!!! Arriving back at the bus we were all a little soggy to say the least but headed over to our campsite, which now comes with the Smith seal of approval due to the toilets not being long drops and the fact there were plug sockets (yes the straigtheners did come with us on the tour). We were the lucky ones as it turned out that we were on the more upmarket budget tour and had little huts to sleep in where as the really budget trip had tents that had to pitched in what only can be describes as a small lake. After a filling lunch we headed over to Uluru to watch the sunset, but due to the fact that it was raining we didn't see anything apart from grey clouds so again we headed back to camp for a few beers.
For second the morning in a row we were up at 5am in the vain hope of watching the sunrise of Uluru but as it was STILL raining and had been all night so all we saw again were grey clouds. We still did the base walk round the big rock and were really 'lucky' to see waterfalls. Damp and cold we headed back to camp to pack up our things and go to our second camp by Kings Canyon, well at least that's what we thought. Just after lunch our tour guide, Tegan, announced that due to the rain parts of Kings Canyon were flooded, people were stranded and there was no way we could go that afternoon as the road was under 1.5m of water. To pass the time we had a look round Yulara, Ayres Rock Resort, which took all of about 2 minutes then went back to the campsite for a beer. By half six the rain had stopped just in time to see a slight sunset (by slight I mean a small strip of sky that wasn't covered by clounds) from the viewing point at the campsite where you could see Uluru and Kata Tjuta. It wasn't much but it we were all really glad that we got to see something.
After a freezing cold night it we still didn't know if we were going to be able to go over to Kings Canyon, but by ten o'clock we had been given the all clear so off we went. Due to the time we had left we only were able to do the short walk through the Canyon instead of the one around the top, it was still good as I really didn't think we'd get to go at one point. By this time we had dried out and had to make one last refueling stop before the 400km drive back to Alice Springs. Thinking that nothing else could go wrong we all stocked up on munchies for the long trip back, it was at this point that Tegan realised that she had actually put unleaded petrol into the bus instead of diesel, oh how we laughed! Luckily she had not started the engine so she was able to drain all the petrol off without too much drama. We finally got back to Alice Springs by about 10pm having nearly hit several cows on the way back. It was too late and we were too tired to go out so just went for what can only be described as the nicest pizza ever and went to bed. We did go out the next night got v.drunk and didn't get in till 4.30am.
All in all an eventful few days but still had fun.
Sorry this entry is so long.
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