The Outback

Please excuse the spacing of some of the wording and some of the photos; WordPress can be a bit of a pain.

The outback from the airplane:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before we visited I could understand why most Australians don’t visit Uluru/Ayres Rock, sacred rock of all rocks (I’m sure there are many such rocks in the world, but it just sounded good) – it’s damn far away from everything and damn expensive to get to.  Hell, it’s even known as ‘The Centre of the Centre’; it’s right smack in the middle of Australia.  But since visiting, I now think everyone should visit if possible.  I’m not sure any words I put into this blog will do it justice and either will the photos (as good as Gary is at taking them), but I’m going to try anyway.  It was one of the most spectacular things we’ve done.  It was also a very emotional experience for me, and more so since we left the area.  I’ve been thinking about how aboriginal people and people native to a country get treated, and not just in Australia but something really affected me here.  I’m not ready to attempt to express this yet, but possibly in a later post.

Although neither of us like organized tours, we decided to book through an agent and it was a good way to go for sure; it was just taking us too long to piece all of the bits together.   The tour comprised of 3 days and 2 nights in luxury (not really) permanent tents, guided hikes, meals, etc.  We arrived in Alice Springs and spent a night in a Backpackers accommodation on our first night there and then again one night at the end of our 3 day tour.  The drives were long – anywhere from 4- 6 hours each day in the outback.  The temperature was well over 30C (our 3rd day was 39C).  Hikes were from 1.5 to 4 hours long.  And although the focal point was Uluru/Ayres Rock, the other visitation points were equal highlights.  Hard to believe most people probably haven’t heard of the other places:  Kata-Tjuta, Kings Canyon.

The Outback

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve included lots of photos and if I haven’t labelled them just assume that it’s the same rock/mountain/area as the previously labelled photo.  Here’s how it went:

Day 1

Arrived in Alice Springs and checked into our luxurious Haven Backpackers Resort (the name is so deceiving); had a quick bite in Alice (as the locals call it) since most everything was closed by the time we ventured out.  Later we had dinner in Alice at the best restaurant, for Alice that is (one of only 2).  After all this is the outback.

Day 2 (official day 1 of the tour)

Woke up at 5:15 a.m. to get ready for our pick up, and drove for approximately 6 hours (with stops along the way) to our camp, had lunch and drove to Kata-Tjuta also know at The Olgas which are in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park http://www.australia.com/en-us/places/red-centre/kata-tjuta.html.  They are certainly overshadowed by Uluru but quite spectacular.  Then back to our luxurious camp (not really, I would have preferred a real room) with our permanent tent, relaxed a little then a 20 minute drive to Uluru for our sunset viewing and a glass or two or three of bubbly, and then off to bed.

Our camps

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The landscape was quite incredible in itself.   Although the colours pretty much stayed the same, the terrain and textures were constantly changing.  We also loved the smell of eucalyptus in the air when the wind blew through the trees.

 

Day 3 (official day 2 of the tour)

On the bus by 5:15 (no ifs, ands or buts) and off we went to our sunrise viewing of Uluru.  Another amazing moment.  I should add at this point that Uluru is a very sacred place for the aboriginals from this area, and as a matter of fact there are sections that we were not allowed to photograph.  We spent about 4 hours here in the morning, walked around the entire rock (appx. 10 km) and even had a very passionate and political aboriginal guide by the name of Vincent walk us around a certain sacred area and tell us the ‘story of creation’, and how their children are educated (loved it!).   When I asked Vincent about the comparison of the struggle and challenges with the Canadian native people and Australia’s aboriginal people, he thought that Canada had made huge communication headway in comparison, and that at least we had open dialogue.  That says a whole lot.

Flies, flies, everywhere flies.  They were quite distracting and annoying and I wish they had handed out head netting as part of the tour.  They hand out snorkles, masks and fins when you go on a snorkelling trip, so why not head nets.  Many of the people had brought them so obviously more up on things then we were.  They were small flies but with a constant buzz around the ears, nose, mouth; you can imagine there was little talking going on at first.  I did get one in my mouth but was able to spit it out before going down my throat.  We’ve included a couple of pictures with flies in them (but they didn’t tell the true story).  There could be 20 in and around your face at one time.  And we figured out that they seemed to like black and at times there would be at least 100 on someone’s back or knapsack.  And the buzzing, oh my, enough to drive you to pull out your hair.  On a positive note, they didn’t bite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4 (official day 3 of the tour)

Another early rise and on the bus at 5:30 a.m. to get us to Kings Canyon.  I’m not going to say anything except that it was fabulous – I’ll let you see it for yourselves.  We did the 6 km canyon rim walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wildlife

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on that note, see you in Melbourne.