The Rock and sleeping in a Swag at Curtin Springs
Trip Start
Sep 18, 2007
1
73
98
Trip End
Ongoing
Alice Springs,
Northern Territory,
Australia
Thursday, May 8, 2008
The place we stayed the first night was called Curtin Springs, after the former Australian Prime Minister. Any of the Curtin's are capable of the top job in any country in my opinion, but good old John Joseph was the head honcho here for a while. We'd good fun having a few beers around the camp fire. With no clouds in the sky and no city street lights, it's amazing how many stars light up the sky out there.
1. Kings Canyon Day One
Before I forget Ayers Rock etc was really cool too. We did about 2-3 hours walking at each of the 3 places, Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kings Canyon and Valley of the Winds. We'd a good look around. We'd really early starts to get on the road the first 2 mornings and the final morning was the same story when we got up to watch the sun rise at Ayers Rock.It's hasn't rained there in 8 months. It's an Arid desert, not like the Sahara, because it gets 200mm to 800mm rain a year. So basically, when it rains it pours and the ground and rock there is like a big sponge
allowing plant-life to grow there all year round.
There were two buses, 46 people in total. Leith an Aussie guy drove our bus and Fiona a Donegal girl drove the other. We got alot of interesting info from Leith about the Aboriginies, how they lived out here, hunted etc. and the cultural significance of the Rock formations as well as the geological explanation. He was as enthusiastic as Steve Irwin (may he R.I.P.) and had a bit of a child in him aswell. He'd drive the bus onto the gravel shoulder every now and again as if he was about to crash just to scare the girls sitting up the front of the bus.
The crowd on the tour were all good friends by the time we got back to Alice Springs where we had dinner and plenty of drink. The tightest Airport departure yet followed. We both slept in and God only knows how we managed to get on the plane about 20 mins before take off.
