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Alice Springs and Uluru Rock Tour
13th - we got up and chilled before catching the plane to Alice Springs. Views from the plane were spectacular, the desert looked like a tiger - red with green bushes as the stripes. Nice and hot! Stayed at Annies, really friendly. We walked up to the top of a hill to watch a gorgeous sunset, it was like a small town in the middle of nowhere!! We then had some yummy fish and chips, and to top it off, we had a duvet! first one ever!! :)
14th - 6am start, had a good group including Brian, Henry and Nina! It was a long drive and we saw a few dead camels and kangeroos on the road!! We stopped at a place to ride a camel, mine was called curly! We then stopped at Erldunda - which is basically the centre of Australia! I saw the biggest freaking hugest spider EVER...the size of my hand!! eeeekk!! We then had a lunch and some more older people joined our group. We went to Uluru culture centre and I LOVE!!!! the aborigional art, so will have to go back when I have more pennies and buy it all lol!! The stories were interesting describing how aborigionals are close to nature expressed with great diagrams, really reflecting their culture. We then did Uluru base walk, 2 hours 30mins of it in boiling hot weather - reached about 44degrees c. The rock is so different to see up close, changes at every view, photos couldn't do it justice! I unfortuantly got blisers from my shoes (should have stayed in my trusty flip flops!) We watched sunset which was beautiful, he rock changes colour and the sky is a different colour on either side! At camp we had a bbq :D camel sausages, kangeroo and steak....sooo good!! We then watched the stars and they were AMAZING!! sky was full, like a dome above you that you could touch! We did that until midnight then jumped in our swags by our camp site. They are basically a bit of tarpauline which has a matress on the bottom and you put your sleeping bag inside so no roof! pretty cool!! apparently spiders like to go under cover in huts so thought out in the open was better!!
15th - Didnt get much sleep, woke up with a blocked nose and so tired it felt like a hangover...they call it bush nose out there though! all the dust blocks you up at night! woke at 4am for sunrise, then did the Mala Walk at Uluru. Learnt about different male and female sacred areas, torture methods (spear through the legs, eyelids stuck down) and how they learnt patience. Taught how stories were passed down through aborigional art, symbols and song. We then went to the Valley of the Winds which was beautiful, hard work in flip flops though! Was about 3 hours of mountain trekking, but the view was well worth it...breathtaking! We then got chance to cool down in the swimming pool at the camp, food was great the whole trip!! We were camping at a Dingo infested site but we didnt see any until the morning. saw lots of spiders and more amazing stars, and again woke up with bush nose!!
16th - 5am start for Kings Canyon. Blister was painful so strappde it up and wacked on the trusty flip flops. Hobbled around the mountain the best I could! It was amazing though, couldnt have missed it for the world! The rocks were moulded by the sea, could see fossils, and then in the middle of the dry unihabitable rocks, there was a section of green plants and water, called garden of Eden. Overall it was fab (minus the foot which was a struggle) and so worth seeing! took 3and half hours though in very hot weather!! So we cooled off in the pool again and celebrated Brett (our tour guides) birthday! There were more clouds in the sky as in wet season, rains twice a month! but the clouds went the colours of the rainbow behind the sun! We then headed back to Alice Springs and I had to buy an aborigional piece of artowkr and calender :) !! My foot swelled up that eveining and was very painful. but went for meal and said goodbyes, brett was very drunk lol!
17th - woke up with a very painful fat chunky foot, so went to hospital. Funny thing is Alice Springs hospital hadnt banned smoking INSIDE the hospital until july 2009!! crazy! was full of sick aborigional people! Anyway the doc told me I had a foot infection and not to go in the sea...I cried lol...meant I couldn't do scuba diving in Cairns which was why we went there!! anyway I got my free drugs and went on the plane...just missing big storm clouds...the rain is defo chasing us!!
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