Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
My Australia Fun
Time for Uluru! First thing I discovered was that my trip had been upgraded because only about two people had booked through my company (out of a maximum capacity of 24) so I went with a different company with only 9 people. As far as I can tell, it was exactly the same tour but with less people. And I paid $160 less than everyone else. Haha! I didn't rub it in though, that kind of behaviour is never likely to win me any friends. The morning was spent driving all the way to Yulara, which is the resort next to Uluru. It's a fair old drive, and sleeping opportunity was limited because we were in a side facing 4 WD, going along dirt tracks. Still, at one point all of us were asleep before the bloody tour guide woke everyone up. We weren't paying her for this kind of service, let me assure you. The day's itinerary was to do Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) first, then off to Uluru for sunset. I have to say, I was mightily impressed by the Olgas. They're basically a huge range of hills and rocks, individually much smaller than Uluru, but together they're absolutely stunning. There's a 9 km walk round them all, which was fantastic. We walked through the Valley of the Winds, and it's certainly called that for a good reason... I buddied up with a fellow Mark - from Middlesbrough - and we did all the walks together. I wish the photos would do more justice to the place, because when you stop and pause to look around, the views are incredible, but the photograph never does it justice. I had the same problem but much worse with Uluru. In the evening, we watched the sunset over Uluru. We were all worried in the morning that it would be rubbish because it was really cloudy, but luckily it brightened up nicely during the afternoon and the sunset was saved. It's kind of weird watching the colour change - it's almost different minute to minute. After, we made our way back to our camp site, and I have to say that the two evenings in the outback provided some of my best times out here. We cooked dinner over a roaring camp fire to keep everyone nice and warm (temperatures were down to about 2 or 3 degrees at night), then sat around chatting and having a few beers. I was more than a little dubious about the sleeping conditions - swags (basically a canvas cocoon in which you lie, inside your sleeping bag) under the stars. Sounded freezing. However, I had a t-shirt, two tops, a jacket, a beanie and two warm sleeping bags, so I was lovely and toasty. Sleeping under the stars was amazing. It's hard to explain, but they're much more impressive down here, with absolutely no light pollution either. The only bad thing about the situation was getting up at 5.30 am to catch the sunrise. Sadly, we were less lucky than the night before, as it was very cloudy, so it wasn't very impressive. Apparently, sunset is better than sunrise, so I can console myself with that thought! Today was the day of the base walk. The climb was closed because of the rain they'd been having over the last few days, so I couldn't have climbed even if I wanted to. I'm not sure if I would have - it looks really steep and the Aborigines don't like you doing it. Having said that, the 9km base walk was amazing - you wouldn't imagine the rock looks anything like it does from close up. There's caves everywhere and weird patterns in the rock, holes everywhere and all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes. And it sounds obvious, but it really is absolutely huge! I didn't take many photos, because there was no point; it's impossible to capture what it really looks like without actually being there. Obviously that'll be a highlight of my time in Australia! As you can see from the photos, it wasn't the warmest day in the world! I had to buy a warm jacket and a beanie in Alice just in case, and I'm glad I did! Later in the day we went to a camel farm and saw a few camels and kangaroos playing. Very nice. It was then time to go to our camp site for another lovely night under the stars, snuggled up in our swags. I spent all evening teaching Christophe (a Frenchman) useful English phrases such as 'my bum is killing me' and 'bootylicious'. They'll come in mighty handy, I'm sure. On the final day, we did Kings Canyon, which is basically a huge canyon. I'm sure you'd never have guessed. This walk was 6 km (there was a lot of walking on the tour...), including a trip up Heart Attack Hill. Again, no prizes for guessing that this is a very steep hill. Views from the top were amazing, though. It's amazing to think that Kings Canyon, the Olgas and Uluru are so close to each other, but people only really seem to know about Uluru. Anyway, Kings Canyon was very impressive, but I think I was beginning to tire a little bit of walking round rocks! Again, it was pretty hard to capture how impressive everything was. We also took a little trip to the Garden of Eden, a fantastic little oasis tucked away in the canyon. Sadly, that marked the end of the tour and we had to make our way back. I have to say, I was really lucky with the tour group, everyone got on well and they're all a great bunch of people. It was a bit sad saying goodbye knowing you'll never see any of them again! That's all for Uluru, next up is Alice to Cairns....
- comments