Kings Canyon, Uluru and Kata Tjuta
Trip Start
Sep 06, 2007
1
7
8
Trip End
Ongoing
Yulara,
Northern Territory,
Australia
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Kings Canyon
So Kings Canyon is a huge gorge 270m high and is the area that the guy at Stewarts Well (of dinky the singing dingo) first opened up to tourists. The views around the rim are absolutely stunning and our tour leader was really knowledgeable about the area so it was really interesting.
Kings canyon
After collecting some fire wood at the side of the road we set up camp on a cattle station bigger than Holland! That is a farm, with cattle, bigger than Holland, where they muster the cows using helicopters! This country is very very big! After a few beers we snuggled up in the swag bags and fell asleep watching the stars. The temperature was pretty chilly but the swags are so warm, they are a mattress in a waterproof-ish bag so you wiggle in with a sleeping bag.
Me in a swag
They are surprisingly comfortable and I slept really well. The next morning (very very early)we drove to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)a group of large red dome shaped rocks (as high as 1066m above sea level) are only 25km form Uluru and are just as sacred to the aboriginal people. The area is still used for ceremonial purposes but as it is secret men's business it can only be told to men that have been initiated and as I am neither a man nor initiated I cant know it!
Kata Tjuta
But it is very pretty and geologically pretty special and very very very old. We then went to visit the cultural centre at the foot of Uluru to learn some more about the local culture. We then went to watch the sunset over Uluru, which would have been very spectacular if it hadn't been too cloudy to have the desired affect, oh well. That night we camped again under the stars. The camp sight we stayed at this time was part of the Yalara resort and so was busy with other tour groups. I bumped into a guy that I first met in Cambodia almost a year ago, who was working as a guide for the group camping next to us. I also met this guy in Bangkok and I lent them $20 as there cards had all been refused, so he paid me back with interest in the form of beer! Small world. The other random thing was that Ben met a guy who he knew from home who was also on the tour with us. That evening we had a lovely dinner followed by some kangaroo tails which I helped prepare (check out the photos).
Kangaroo Tails
We spent another day under the stars before rising very early to watch the sunrise on Uluru which was far better than the sunset and the rock went spectacularly orange, in fact it was emanating an ethereal glow!
Uluru at sunrise
We then went for a walk around the rock, as it is a sacred place to the aboriginal people they do not like people climbing it for various reasons. So we walked around instead of over, although many people still walk up it we just felt it was a bit disrespectful to do so. After a great walk we headed back to Alice Springs via a quick camel ride. There are actually wild camels in the outback and we saw a few wandering about as well as some wild horses.
camel ride
We had a night out in Alice in a bar that had a live web cam so I spent most of the night waving at mum! The next day we had lunch with Bens friend Max, his girlfriend and her sister who runs a baby Kangaroo rescue centre. So we went to go and cuddle some baby Kangaroos whose Mums had been hit by cars. They are raised until they are old enough to be let back out in the wild, and they where incredibly cute.
joey
We also went and fed some wild rock wallabies and despite a few bighty ones they were also pretty cute. We spent the next few days hanging around Alice Springs not really doing a lot whilst awaiting another relocation deal to take us up to Darwin. Next Alice to Darwin!
Me and boa
