Alice and Uluru

14^th – 18^th December 2015

Now officially car-less, I had taken the bus to Alice Springs. I had planned to drive around the area but as I don’t own a car anymore I would not be able to do everything I wanted to do. The MacDonald Ranges for example. To see Uluru I would have to take a tour which turned out to be a very good thing indeed. I met some great people and had an awesome time. It just so happens that the bus dropped me off just next to The Rock Tour office which was the company I wanted to book with.

I spent the day organising myself and booking various things. The Rock Tour did pick ups and drop offs at both Alice Springs airport and Uluru Airport so I needed to figure out where I wanted to be and when. Once that was done I went into the town to explore. I had a very random small world experience when I bumped into Cindy who was a medic on Ruapehu in New Zealand. She saw me first and it took me a second to place her. It was quite out of context. She had just signed up for 6 months at the hospital in Alice. We had a brief catch up before I needed to get some food.

Alice Springs

I walked up to the war memorial for sunset which I was told was the best time to go. It was a really good view of the town. It seemed like there was a huge gateway to the south and I couldn’t wait to go through it. I got very excited about my tour which would start the next morning. It was the last thing in Australia I wanted to do. The last thing to tick off my list.

The Rock Tour bus

There was a very early pickup the next day. There was a bit of a panic when I couldn’t find the little bit of paper that had the key code on to open the padlocked gate. You couldn’t climb over because of the barbed wire. I eventually found someone awake that knew the code and the bus arrived seconds later. I said hello to everyone but no one was up for chatting until after our first stop.

The Marmot

The magical frog

Our tour guide was called Ben. I think he was born in the UK, raised in New Zealand and now lives and works in Australia. He was a really cool guy. He asked 9 questions that we all had to come up to the front and answer. What’s your name? Where you from? What animal would you be? What special power would you have? Etc. My answer to the animal/special power question was that I would be that Marmot that keeps shouting “ALAN ALAN ALAN!” and teleport next to Alan so he could stop fucking yelling! We then had to draw this on our window.

The crew

It was a long drive to Uluru so we all chatted and got to know each other. I moved to the front of the bus because that’s where all the chatty people were sitting and I was in need of a bit of social after a couple of weeks in the car by myself. There was good mix of people. A big character in the group was Marta from Spain. I think she said had once worked in Pakistan which was interesting. There were a few Germans, a few Swedes, another couple of English and four people from Myanmar.

I was excited to meet the people from Myanmar as I’ve never met anyone from there before and that country is on my to-do list. We picked them up from Uluru and Ben, our guide, told us to try and engage with them. He was under the impression, as I was, that they would be quite shy people and not be able to speak all that much English but we were quite wrong. They were really chatty, spoke very good English and we really nice people. They totally sold me on Myanmar and now I’m definitely going.

Finally seen it!

We stopped for lunch at the campsite where we would be spending the night. There was a viewpoint of Uluru so I went to get a view of the thing I’d been wanting to see since I saw Jeopardy on CBBC about 12 years ago! (It had something to do with Aliens, but it was set in Australia).

Big and Orange!

This was the first of a three day tour. All three days had big walks on them but on day 2 and day 3 we would start them early morning before it got too hot. Today would be the only day that we would be doing the walk in the middle of the day. We were told we would only be able to do the short walk because it would be too hot but luckily for us it was cloudy. We got dropped off on one side of the rock and walked around to the other side.

A big skull?

I touched Ayers Rock!

A happy whale

Uluru is amazing! I’ve seen so many pictures from a distance but none from up close. There’s quite a lot of features on the rock that look like various things. Its really big, very steep and extremely orange!

Bit of water

We met back up with Ben and he took us on the Mala Walk and told us a lot about aboriginal culture and the symbolism of things in the area. I must admit it did open my eyes to a lot of things about aboriginals and the reasons they are how they are.

When you see so many aboriginals hanging out on the streets yelling to someone two blocks away you develop a certain opinion of them because to us this is deemed to be drunk antisocial behaviour or they are drunk but its merely a difference in culture. I first thought this when I was trying to sell my car in Timber Creek by walking down the street between groups of aboriginals. They are actually perfectly nice people to talk to. They hang out together on the street because they have a social culture. They are the ultimate people watchers! That’s what they do, its not there fault that they don’t live in caves or villages anymore. Ben explained the yelling that they do is simply because you wouldn’t leave the coolness of your cave or shelter to wander over to another group, you would just shout. I have noticed that the tends to be a smell associated with aboriginals but when water is the difference between life and death you wouldn’t be having showers everyday. Yes, Australia has moved on and most aboriginals live in houses, have access to water, air con and jobs but who are we to tell them to change. They’ve already been forced to change so much.

Four leaf clovers!?

Lizard

I learnt more about aboriginal culture on this trip than I have in the whole 2 years I’ve been in Australia. Ben clearly had a passion for all things aboriginal which is a good thing in his job. He got genuinely angry when one of the older Koreans in our group climbed a rock at a sacred site for a photograph.

Great place

The route to the top

We had been to the Cultural Centre before heading out on the walk where watched a film about Uluru and how the Aboriginals slowly won back the site from the Australian government and reverting back to its original name, not Ayers Rock. Whilst you are still officially allowed to climb the rock it is made abundantly clear that the locals are not happy about this. The government close the track in the summer months because it is too hot which is why there was no one on it when we were there but the rest of the year people are free to walk all over it. Ben seemed fairly confident it would be banned altogether within the next few years.

Aboriginal art

Spanish?

We found a particular funny sign whilst doing the Mala Walk. It just so happens that the only female sacred sight at Uluru translates in Spanish as’ bad whore’. Marta, our Spanish friend, found this hilarious!

Not a bad spot for a beer

Dinner time

We left the rock in time to get to a viewpoint to watch the sunset. Whilst we took heaps of pictures, Ben cooked us dinner with a little help from everybody. It was really good food actually despite it being cooked on the back of a trailer. I’m always a bit apprehensive about tours that include food as you never know what you’re going to get but this was really tasty.

Uluru sunset: tick

Epic colours

After dinner we sat and watched the truly beautiful sunset with a couple of beers. That night we played a few games at the campsite. Not drinking games, just party games whilst we had a couple of beers. Part of one of the games was to name something you hate (it carried on into a very funny game but that’s not the point I’m making). Rather than go with ‘lettuce’ or ‘mushrooms’, when it was my turn to speak, I said ‘manbuns with the shaved sides’. They really do annoy me. If you want hair long enough for a pony tail or bun then fine but don’t shave the sides off just because everyone else is doing it. I had a bit of a rant.

“You mean like Hosana?” said someone.

I looked up to realise that I had just described the exact hair cut of the guy opposite me. I felt like such a twat! I tried to dig myself out of it by saying he’s Asian and it suites Asians. It doesn’t suite a Westerner. He said it was OK and everyone found it hilarious but I felt so bad. I really put my foot in it with that one.

Uluru sunrise: tick

That night we slept in swags under the stairs which was actually far better than I had expected. I was perfectly warm, perfectly comfortable and there didn't seem to be any bugs around. It would have been a decent nights sleep were it not for the fact that we got up super early to get back to the view point for sunrise. I’m not sure which I preferred more, the sunset or sunrise, both were amazing.

Wow!

Group photo!

We had a small drive over to the Olgas, otherwise known as Kata Tjuta which I still can’t pronounce properly. We did a big walk up to a view point and it was spectacular. Everyone comes to this area to see Uluru but it is well worth the effort to come here too. 

A walk through the rocks

The oven ahead

Ben told us how both Uluru and Kata Tjuta were formed. They are the tops of long columns of rock that go many kilometres into the ground. Kata Tjuta has been worn down by rain and wind much more than Uluru so that it can no longer be considered a monolith but, as I said, it was no less impressive. Ben pointed out a few rock formations. There was that looked like an elephant. He didn’t explain what this one looked like though…

Rude

The elephant

Still walking

Nice view

The last part of the journey was a steep climb up to the viewpoint. It was still very early in the morning as they close this section when it gets too hot. I can completely understand why. The big red walls act like an oven and its baking. That is until you reach the top and there's a nice breeze coming through.

Kata Tjuta

We made it back to the bus and had a few snacks before heading to a lookout where you can see all of Kata Tjuta.

Fooluru

Then it was time to begin the long journey round to Kings Canyon. We had a couple of stop offs along the way including Fooluru. That’s not its official name but its been known that people who have driven all this way to see Uluru, have taken a picture of this thing then driven back home thinking they’ve seen it.

Wild horses

Bus crew

We had another stop off along to road to dig for some grubs you can eat. We had to find a specific type of bush and then start digging at the roots until you found a fat bit. Inside you might find a bug that you can eat. We searched for a while but we did not find any bugs. I don’t think anyone really wanted to eat any so it was no great loss. I certainly wasn't going to be eating any. We also stopped to gather some firewood for the camp that night.

Fire!

I would just like to point out that when we answered the questions when we introducing ourselves, playing with fire was my answer to ‘useful camping skill’ so I was very upset when this job got taken by Boris. To be fair he wasn’t on the bus when we did the question thing so he didn’t know but I like building bonfires. I managed to get involved in this one a little bit but the hard bit was already done.

Scorpion!

We all pitched in to make another fantastic meal cooked on our fire. We sat around to have a few more drinks and we got to know each other a little bit more. Just as we were getting ready for another night in the swags someone noticed this scorpion strolling through our camp. We poked it for a while before Ben flung it back in the bush on the end of a spade.

Camping around the fire

As I got into my swag I realised that I was in the exact spot the scorpion had been flung too. I figured it had probably run off by now so I stayed put. I couldn’t be arsed moving anyway to be honest. I was knackered.

Heart Attack Hill

There was at least a little bit daylight when we up the next day. It was still very very early. We had another big walk to do through Kings Canyon starting with the aptly named ‘Heart Attack Hill’. This was quite a challenge first thing in the morning although the picture makes it look a bit small. Trust me its not. By the time we reached the top no one was feeling sleepy any more.

Epic view

The view was amazing in the early morning light. I was one of the first to the top because I like to just power through these things. Whilst everyone was recovering themselves I snuck out to the ledge to get a couple of pictures.

Spot of rock climbing

We started the walk alongside the edge of the canyon and what we found was an almost completely alien landscape. The barren orange rock would not look out of place on some sort of science fiction film. Possibly martian. It really did look like we had been transported to another world

Sharp rocks

Walked to Mars?

Mars

Time for a lie down

Ben had strict rules about being too close to the edge on this walk after someone had fallen off and died a couple of years ago. Lying down 2 metres away from the edge, as Marta demonstrated, was perfectly acceptable however.

More rocks

A river crossing

Suddenly we came across a river and life. This was a beautiful little spot where they’ve built a set of stairs and a bridge to cross. We stopped here for a short break and Ben told us some stuff. We had several stops where Ben would explain certain aspects of the land and the nature. He knew a lot of stuff and all of it interesting. He told us a story of how an aboriginal would be punished if they had done something really bad. They would use a particular plant and glue their eyes shut with the sap.

Big group pic

We crossed to the other side of Kings Canyon which isn’t this big river. It was actually a little gap about a metre wide that you could just jump over. It just happens to open up a lot wider further down. We came to the end of the river which is called The Garden of Eden and water was spilling over the little waterfall. Ben said it’s the first time he’d seen that.

Its seriously a different planet!

Little puddle on a cliff

We continued round to the end of the track which was a slow descent back to the car park and then it was time to make the long journey back to Alice Springs.  I was very excited to see Uluru and was very impressed by it. Kata Tjuta too, was also something I was looking forward to seeing. However, I had given little thought to the Kings Canyon. This place I think I would say is the best site out of the three. Its such an alien place and so unlike anything I’d seen before. It was a great walk and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Kangaroos!

Emu

and a camel

We had one stop on the way back at a camel farm. They had emus and kangaroos too but the main attraction was the camels where you could pay to ride one. I had never ridden I camel so I had already decided to give it a go. Most of the group didn’t seem keen though. I must admit I wasn’t too keen after I saw how they were treated. They have a rope which is attached through a hole in their nose and they get them stand up, sit down and walk all by yanking on this rope. Maybe it doesn’t hurt them but I wasn't impressed. The camels I saw in Broome responded to commands or a slap on the backside. This was crueler. Rachel and I, who I had partnered up with, very nearly didn’t do it but we had already bought a ticket and we decided to go ahead with it. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.

Camel riding

It wasn’t a particularly amazing experience but I suppose I can tick it off the list. Its quite violent the way a camels stands up and sits down so you really have to hold on. We walked round the paddock and ran down the last bit. The running bit as a ball cruncher!

The crew back in town

That’s the end of the tour. We got a group photo at the Alice Springs sign. We said goodbye to a few people who we dropped off at the airport before we arrived back in town. As I mentioned earlier, I was planning to do this area by myself in my car but maybe the breakdown was a blessing in disguise. I had a really good time on this tour. The people I met were great and it made the experience so much better than if I had done it solo.

Shots!

We met up again that night at The Rock Bar for some after tour drinks. Ben joined us too which I thought was a nice touch because I don’t think he had to. I stayed for a little while having drinks and chatting to people before we all parted ways. It felt like I’d known this group for a lot more than just three days!

I spent most of the next just chilling out before my flight. I was flying to my final destination in Australia and my favourite, Cairns.