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Having flown from a cool breezy Perth into hot, hot, hot Alice Springs, we just wanted a lovely cold shower, and a good night's rest! Instead, we were boiled in the shower, with the cold tap not working! The last resident's nail clippings in my bed didn't help either!
Anyway, we had our room changed, and headed out for a short walk of the area (Todd Street Mall) and some food! As night fell, we saw our first real bit of trouble in Australia, with a fight kicking off between locals who'd had a tipple too much. Besides that, we had a fantastic meal (it was our 'splash out' day!), and headed back to pack for our 3 day Aussie Adventures tour to Uluru and Kings Canyon with a 6am pickup the next morning!
About half a day into our tour we arrived at Uluru, an Aboriginal cultural site. We were briefed on the importance of the site to the indegenous people, which disuaded everyone from climbing it. Instead, I completed part of the base walk, seeing a difference in the appearance of the rock from various angles, some in direct sunlight, and some partly shaded. We were also told that the formation had particular relevance to women, and as you walk around you can make out some connections to aspects liek childbirth. The sheer volume of flies meant Dip and i wore our very sexy face mossie nets!! Greatful as i was for these nets, they didn't stop the constant buzzing around my ears! I hate that!
As the temperature started to drop (from 45 degrees!), we dropped off our bags at our campsite and headed to a remote spot to enjoy the sunset with crackers, cheese and wine! I'm not a wine drinker, but it went down a treat!
That night, after having a fantastic veggie pasta cooked by our tour guide/driver/chef (!), we got our swags ready for bed. This was the part I had been dreading since the day we booked the tour 5 months ago! Sleeping amongst the spiders, beetles, mozzies, 10cm tall grasshoppers and more insects I couldn't even name! Upon arrival i found out there were wild dingoes too! To make matters worse, our swags weren't going into tents, we truly were sleeping in the vast outdoors. As night fell, I got down to business: sleeping bag and swag ready, pyjamas on in a bit of a scramble under my sleeping bag and insect repellent on- 2 layers! Now i was ready! All this was in the light of our campfire. That's the last bit of fear I remember... as soon as I lay down, all I could see was a dark sheet filled with stars. It felt absolutely amazing! Sleeping beneath the stars... Wow!
The next day we woke up at 4:45am ready for sunrise! We then headed out to the West MacDonnell Ranges where we did another walk, beautiful, but very different to Uluru. After a swim, we were ready for lunch, and then dinner! As evening fell again, I felt much better about sleeping outside (even though we did hear a couple of dingo howls!). Based in the Valley of Winds meant we all slept with our faces in the same direction as the wind was blowing the sand quite fiercely! Even still, we all woke in the morning with sand in every exposed part! Ears, mouth, eyes and nose!!
This was our last day, and after again rising very early for yet another amazing sunrise, we did our final walk- Kings Canyon. Check out all the photos! This concluded our tour and we headed back to Alice Springs for one final night, (and a final meal at the fab restaurant!).
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