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Well i'll start off by saying we survived and have had an awesome time at the big rock! Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin.
We got up early ready to be picked up by our tour guide Tom. We were only allowed a small bag so we had to leave our big backpacks at the hostel. We finally set off for Kings Canyon after going back to one of the other hostels as Tom forgot to pick someone up! On our way there Tom made us all come up to the front of the bus say our name, where we were travelling and an interesting fact about ourselves. There was 21 of us all together ranging from 19 year olds to 49, from all different parts of the world - there was even three Italians and they were lovely!! We then played speed dating where we had to change seats to get to know someone else in our group. After a few hours drive and once we were all acquainted it was time to get climbing.The first part of Kings Canyon is called heart attack hill as you can imagine we were very excited about this. Especially as instead of opting for hiking boots like they suggested we brought a pair of K-Mart plimsole specials. (We clearly didn't learn from trekking in our Primark specials in Thailand!!) We also opted not to buy a fly net like they suggested so for three days all we could hear was Buzzzz and with every meal we had a side dish of flies, between us we swallowed 10! The Walk was 7km and the temperature was 45c. It was three hours long as we stopped for people to have a swim in a creek called the Garden Of Eden. We had to take three litres of water with us, 1 for each hour or Tom would not let us walk! The walk was hard work as it was really hot but we both said that the Thailand trekking was harder! Back on the bus we were off to our campsite, on route we stopped to collect timber - yes we had to go and snap branches off of dead trees, carry them and load them onto the trailer!! At this time we were behind schedule and was going to have to cook dinner and set up camp in the dark it was at this time we were also told our tour guide Tom was only 21 and it was his first trip alone!! Even though we were running late we still managed to stop at a petrol station to get beers! Once we got to the campsite which was in the middle of no where and had no toilet or shower facilities we set up, started the fire and dinner! While setting up we got the swags out of the trailer Stephanie and I both thought swags was another name for a tent how wrong we were, they are actually sleeping bags with a thin matress inside! We were pleased we got the beers as we would fall asleep straight away! After we ate dinner at midnight and played a few games we were ready for bed. As it was still really hot we could not zip our swags up all the way around us, so we were literally sleeping outside with no cover! The stars however were amazing and the beers did the trick!
The next morning we were up at 5am, we drove to a proper campsite where we had breakfast - as it was Toms first trip he bought ready mix pancakes for us! We then drove to the next walk which was at Kata Tjuta, the walk closes at 11am as it gets too hot to walk, thats why we had to get up so early! This walk was 7km and the temperture was 50c - even at that time of day! We found this walk harder but the views were amazing. While also guiding us on the walk Tom told us stories about the aboriginal people, what Kata Tjuta means to them and also some dreamtime stories which they tell their children. There was different lengths of walks you could do, but we and some of the group took the longest which took three hours, which meant again carrying another three litres of water each! After lunch and some more flies we were ready for another walk, this was only 1km but took some time as Tom showed us some Aboriginal paintings in the caves and told us some more stories. Back in the bus feeling very tired, we went to have dinner and watch the sunset at Uluru - this is the aboriginal name for it, Ayers Rock is what the Europeans call it. We had a lovely dinner and took lots of pictures. We then got moving to a different campsite this one did have toilets but they were a little walk away. At this campsite we were not allowed to light a fire so it was pitch black apart from the stars! After getting our swags ready and just about to fall asleep Tom kindly told us to beware of the large scorpians! He told us that they will sting you, that they wont kill you, but it will hurt like hell! Needless to say we were extremly frightened, Stephanie couldn't even sleep and had to get in the bus to try and sleep there! We were greatful however he didn't tell us till the morning the full extent of what aminals are lurking around at night. He told us that there were poisonous spiders and snakes, there is even one snake that will chase you! All we could think was thank god that was our last night!
That morning we were up at 4.30 am to watch the sunrise behind Uluru and have some breakfast! We then drove to Uluru ready for our next walk which was 10km and 40c. If you wanted to you can actually climb to the top of Uluru but the Aboriginals ask you not too as it is a sacred sight for them with special meaning and they don't want tourist climbing on it, but because it is on loan to the government they are not allowed to ban it. A few people climbed from our group but we definitely didn't want to. The climb is very steep and closes at 8am as it get extremely hot - some people have even died doing it. We thought it was really disrespectful of people to climb it - but each to there own! The walk was flat but was hard work because of the heat, on the way round there are certain points where you are not allowed to take photos of the rock, either its a man or a women's sacred sight. If it is a womens scared sight the Aboriginals ask the men not to even look at that part of the rock and visa-versa with the mens sacred sights.We all met back at the bus to make the long journey back to Alice Springs. On the way back we stopped to have lunch and also stopped at a Camel farm! At the farm you could ride camels and see some Walabys. We finally got back at around 6pm which only left an hour to get showered ready for a tour reunion at the pub! We had a great night of dancing and drinking!
We had such a great time on the tour especially as it was not in our plans to go to Uluru. Our tour group were amazing and our tour guide Tom is a very close second to the best tour guide in the world Ricky!! This certainly made up for our nightmare trip in Fraser Island. It was amazing to see Uluru in really life and not just in pictures, it was also amazing to learn about the Aboriginals and how they used to live and what Uluru means to them.
We are now in melbourne for a couple of days, looking forward to seeing New Zealand, we can not believe our time in Australia is coming to an end!
Love to all of you and hope you are all well.
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