Hej everybody!
You really have to go to Alice Springs and surroundings if you are staying in Australia. My intention was to see the signnificant landscape and of course Uluru(Ayers Rock) and that stuff. Besides that, I was really keen on having a glance at the culture of the aborigines and learn something about them. This is why I booked a three day trip with "The Rock Tour" and arrived one day earlier in Alice Springs and left one day later from Alice Springs, so alltogether I stayed about five days out there.
Sydney Airport 3rd November morning, it was presumably the worst weather I've ever experienced here.
Flying with Qantas over Central Australia and crossing 1.5h timezone. =)
So, when I arrived in Alice Springs I walked around with a just new gained friend, who invited me to come to a didgeridoo workshop. You see the result.^^
Ahm, getting anxious because of all these snakes and spiders, I went to visit the "Flying doctors".
Getting a nice overview over the town from Anzak Hill.
Next morning, pick-up time 5.50 from my backpacker accomodation. Tour guide was Karmen, one of the funniest people I've ever met.
"Restrooms" for Sheila's(Women) and Bloke's(Men) in the middle of nowhere.
Our lovely bus, photo taken in Curtin Springs, a farm which is as big as Belgium.
Yeah, that's what you need to survive...;)
Gas station at Curtin Springs, which we reached after 5h drive or so.
First view on Uluru. Look by the way at the windscreen...
Aboriginal "drawing" on Uluru. We did a basewalk around the rock, which was great fun and took about 3hrs in the burning sun...it was luckily still spring so we had only 35 degrees and bit more.
A coyote near our temporarily dining place.
Let's talk about water...I drank about 3liters a day and I do not know how much we took with us additionally in the bus. The food was fantastic by the way!
Waiting for sunset and taking stupid(but nice right?) pictures^^
Here comes a little compilation of sunset and sunrise at Uluru:
Back to the story:
My "bed" was in fact a swag. Was pretty cool if there wasn't this disturbing matter in the night...
Naming this matter, it was a thunderstorm: First we could see the stars but somewhen at eleven to twelve it started dropping and most of the people moved under the shelter for not getting wet. Unfortunately the shelter did not take all the twenty people, so I was one of the ones who had to improvise.(This is by the way the view out of my swag)
Why did I wait so long? - I thought this little bit of dropping doesn't bother me too much. When it started puring down then, I was the last who slept on the ground and it felt like sleeping in a swimming pool...I was soaking. Altough the water biotope in my sleeping bag - or rather aquarium?- I had great fun somehow even though I had to move under the car eventually. I slept not that much that night.
Depite my sleeping manko, I was one of the most awaken(or still awaken) people in the morning and making everybody angry with singing songs like: "Here comes the sun", "Raindrops keep falling on my head" and "Always look at the bright side of life"
We had to get up at 4 o'clock and went to Uluru to see the sunrise and eat breakfast. Look at the awesome toaster!
We had to get up at 4 o'clock and went to Uluru to see the sunrise and eat breakfast. Look at the awesome toaster!
Later that Saturday, we went to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas).
We hiked around for about three hours, which was quite confortable because it wasn't that hot in the morning.
I saw my first wild and still living kangaroo!(In front of the bush to the right)
The "Valley of winds"
A waterwhole in the middle of all these rocks.
The heat came with the sun and we reached for our waterbottles...
The whole Kata Tjuta range.
Eating lunch and drying our swags.
Our sleeping bags.
A lizard of about 40cm.
Lunchtime!
Yep, we were still in the middle of a desert.
We had to look for some firewood for the bonfire tonight.
Arriving just before sunset at our camp near Kings Canyion.
Camels are often visible in the desert. They were introduced by the Arabic in the 19th century.
We watched the sunset from a little hill.
What else do we want? It was just "wow"!
At the left the sunset and at the right some rainshowers. Awesome.
(They did not hit us by the way)
Eating a huge dinner with enough hot coal after that nice bonfire. I think we gahtered enough wood as well. =D
Next morning, 5hrs hike through the Kings Canyion.
The landscape was just idyllic.
And it started getting really hot.
Looking out of the canyion.
In the canyion itself was a lot of shade and some waterholes.
Unfortunately I didn't get a better picture of the "Garden of Eden". I went for a sim in there and enjoyed the fresh, clean and dark water. I couldn't find the crocodiles =(
We kept going on through that awesome scenery.
The cliffs at the canyion.
Tough tree!
It was an excellent trip.
The rocks are in fact white, only red becaues of erosion.
Where is the next waterhole??
This plant is approx 1400 years old.
On our way backto Alice Springs(6hrs drive or more...)The trucks are even bigger than in America.
Yeah, at the camel farm, some went riding(I didn't). I rather enjoyed their funny faces. =D
Group photo. Internationally composed, everybody did a great job to make this camp unforgettable.
Monday morning, back to Alice Springs and real life as well.
This is a quite simple airport, whose taxiways are the runway itself.
Boing 737-800, remembered me at Seattle, where you can see them in the building hall.
"Lake Eyre" on my flight to Melbourne.
Melbourne on final approach. I stayed there only for a stop-over.
Flying back to Sydney and also to the clouds.
Sydney on approach. And I was back to the city life!
I had to do the laundry...though I had no hope anymore for this shirt. Everybody of our group signed it! Thank you Guys!
Was really nice to get out there for a fiew days!
Hope you guys at home or wherever got a good impression of this trip!
Hope as well that you are all fine.
best regards
Flo
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