Camel farm, our first stop
The olgas
Olgas, close up
View from up in the olgas
Close up of the olgas
One of the olgas
View of the olgas
Uluru at dusk
Uluru with some weirdo spoiling the view
Sunset that first day 
Sunrise at Uluru
Sunrise at Uluru
Sunrise at Uluru 
Sunrise at Uluru
Close up of Uluru
Close up of Uluru
Close up of Uluru
Close up of Uluru
Close up of Uluru
Permanent watering hole at Uluru
Close up of Uluru
Rock art at Uluru
Uluru
Close up of Uluru
Typical green outback that we spent hours and hours driving through to get to Uluru
Camp fire at Yulara
Kings Canyon - we had to walk up that to get to the top of the canyon
View from the top of canyon
walking around the canyon
View from the canyon
View of the canyon
View from the Canyon
Waves in the sand that were at the bottom of the inland sea that have been fossilised at kings canyon
Garden of Eden at Kings Canyon
Garden of eden at kings canyon
Kings canyon
Kings canyon
View of a fresh face of the canyon after a mini collapse I had booked a three day tour of the red centre so that I could see Uluru. The tour would be in a 4x4 van and there would be about 17 of us. We would be camping under the stars and sleeping in swags. A swags is basically a mattress in a bag.
We left really early in the morning and drove to the Olgas for our walk. The olgas are a rock formation that looks like lots of heads sticking out of the ground. The olgas, like many of rock formations in central Australia, were formed by the compressing of sand and other sediment at the bottom of the inland lake that once covered the middle of Australia. Movements in the earths crust then caused parts of this rock to be exposed and millions of years of weathering has worn the rock away into the shape it now is. The olgas is a special place for the aboriginals and so we were allowed to to walk only over a certain track of it. The walk was really good. The scenery was nice and the walk had just the right amount of difficulty.
After our walk we drove until late and we reached our first camp site for the night - Yulara. Yulara is a permanent camp site near Uluru. We headed straight for Uluru and watched the sun set whilst drinking some bubbly. The sunset was brilliant and we watched as the colours of Uluru changed in the fading night. We headed back to the camp and had some really nice food cooked by our tour guide Teegan. We had some marshmellows and drinks around the fire, under the stars.
We got up early the next morning and headed back to Uluru for sunrise. It was a really early start and we got there a little late. All the coach loads of tourists had already got there. We watched as the sun came up and changed the colour of uluru from a dirty brown to a brilliant rusted copper colour. It was definitely worth the hour of freezing and huddling. The outback got really cold at night, even though by day it was fairly warm!!
We did a walk around Uluru. Our guide recommended the half walk around the base, and that's what I did. Uluru is amazing close up and there are lots of details and features that make it really interesting. We saw some rock art and also a watering hole, right next to the rock. We then went into the nearby cultural centre and was luck enough to hear a talk from an aboriginal elder on bush food. She didn't speak much English and I think one of the centre's employees basically made up some facts as she spoke.
We then headed to our next camp site, which was near kings canyon. We did some off roading to get there and the Germans on the bus didn't like that at all. We'll, they didn't like much and pretty much didn't talk to anyone else on the bus. They also didn't do their fair share and basically came out of their tents when breakfast, lunch or dinner was called and then retired again to them once they had their fill. They didn't help cook, clean, or to make the fires like everyone else did. I tried to speak with them a few times but they gave me one word answers. I don't think i actually spotted them talking to anyone else. They also had a really rude habit of speaking when our tour guide was, even after they had been asked politely to stay quiet.
That night sleeping in our swags we heard lots of dingos and they seemt quite close. There was also a storm and that prevented most people from sleeping that night.
The next day we got up early again for a 4 hour walk around kings canyon. Kings canyon, is actually a canyon (unlike The grand canyon). We walked up a near vertical set of stairs to reach the top so that we could have a walk around the edges. The views were brilliant and we got to go down into the canyon and see the garden of edan which is a permanent watering hole. Apparently you can swim in it and around some rock in the canyon, but that wasn't offered to us? After our walk we were all knackered and headed back to Alice.
Throughout the trip I was quite surprised that the outback was actually quite green. I didn't really see swathes of red soil and the land looked quite fertile (from the bus anyways). During the tour we drove through a few cattle stations and some of them were huge. I think the biggest was the size of Belgium/Switzerland (whichever is biggest?), although i didn't really see that many cows (nor Camels - apparently there are hoards of them running wild).
No comments:
Post a Comment