The Outback,Ayers Rock and Alice Springs

  Alice Springs, Australia
Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Got a ticket on the Greyhound bus and left Adelaide at 6pm as bored with nothing there but shops,and started the 19hour bus ride up to Alice Springs.Stopped off at Port Augusta*(again!)and picked up a bottle of booze to try and help me sleep but no joy!Drove through the night through Coober Pedy,a mining town the Opal centre of the world and finally got to Alice Springs at 2pm the next afternoon.Checked into Annies Backpackers place and booked the Mulga Tour to the red centre the next morning.Up at 6am with 17people onto the Mulga bus tour and headed off along the road for 6hours into the Outback.Unbelievable the size of everything just driving along massive long roads with nothing to see but dry dead trees,red dust and the road in front.Saw loads of dead Kangaroos and cattle on the side of the road apparantly theyre a real problem as they just jump out and run in front of cars and vans especially at night and take the front of your car out.Loads of them every 2mins lying at the side of the road,and also massive Wedgetail Eagles coming to feed on them and also a prob as they feed on the road kill then some fly into the windscreen or are too fat to fly away in time and these things are as big as a golden eagle!

Kings Canyon Ledge

Got to Kings Canyon on the fist day and walked around the bottom and top of the massive Canyon,hanging off the edges for photos and swimming in the billabong/watering hole to cool off after the 3hour walk in the blazing sun must have been 30degrees.

Ry Cliff Edge,Kings Canyon

Drove off to a cattle station stopping to get some beer and then all unloaded the gear from the trailor and cooked pasta and food on the gas stoves and rolled out the "swags"-canvas sleeping bags to all sleep under the stars by the fire,really smart as the stars are so clear and look so close you can see the milky way too.Proper caming out in the middle of the outback with no toilets showers or anything and had to dig holes when needed the toilet!GOt up next day after packing swags and breakfast away and drove to the Olgas,a massive creation of rocks with honeycomb tops bigger than Ayers Rock that the Aboriganies believe sacred and special to their culture

Ry Valley Of Winds,The Olgas

Ry Front Of The Olgas

A great 3hour walk around the valley of the winds and stopped to get lunch again under shelters on the side of the road then drove off to Uluru,Ayers Rock to get sunset along with another 20 odd buses doing the same!

Ry at Ayers Rock,Sunset

Sunset Ayers Rock

Camped under the stars again on the side of the road and got up at 5am to drive and see sunrise at Ayers rock after drinking too much wine the night before with Heela,an Israeli girl on the trip really cool.

Ry Glen And Heela at Annies Place

Sunrise Silhouette

Ayers Rock

Amazing sunrise at the rock where it goes from stone to red under the different times of the day.Then climbed the massive walk to the top of the rock,the Abbo's ask that you dont climb the rock out of respect to them as they hold it special to their history and believe that their ancestors climbed to the top for rituals to place sticks and poles so dont want you walking in their footsteps but after seeing the 100 japanese making their way up couldnt turn down the chance to see the view from the top.You gotta be really careful as 30odd people have died doing the climb and its near enough sheer drop with slippy surface getting up with nothing but a rope helping you up the top.After having to stop a couple of times and with the wind blowing you perched on the side of the climb finally made it to the top,really high up with loads of crater style holes on the top of the rock and saw the cracking views all across the outback with nothing but vast space with the Olga rocks in the distance and a handful of cars and trees.

Top Of Ayers Rock after climb

Came back at 6pm to Alice Springs,you cant get you head round how big this place is,just the Northern Territory could fit the Uk in about 10times!and to drive between the closest town and Ayers rock takes 5-6hours,just like driving from south coast to scotland in the uk!Met the rest of the group,a couple of spanish,few germans Heela the Israeli girl few Japanese and Taiwanese and Glen the guide for a meal and beers in the night and ended up going onto the local bars in Ayers rock with Glen and Heela,massive hang over the next morning!!!Spent the next day walking round Alice checking out the Didgeridoos and boomerang shops and looking for relocations,where you pay a hire company a dollar a day to drive their van or car back to a place for them but nothing doing towards Darwin so decided to get the Greyhound again to head north on up to Darwin to go see the Crocs!!!