Thursday, April 26, 2007

The One with the Flies and the Swagbags

We arrived in Alice Springs and the heat hit us as we stepped off the plane... as did the flies. We were instantly doing the wave of Australia - the fly swat.

We were staying at the funky Annie's Backpackers in Alice Springs and were delighted to see that it had a swimming pool. We headed into town first, however, where most things were shut as it was a Sunday afternoon, and then we cooled of with a dip in the pool before dinner.

We had an early start on the Monday morning for our 3 day trip into the Red Centre with Mulga's tours. We had a minibus with 19 fellow happy campers, and a trailer on the back which had swags on the top. This would be a great start for our Australian Adventure.

It's a popular misconception that Alice Springs is right next to Uluru when actually it's several hundred km away! We had a lot of driving to do, but luckily Panky (our driver) had good tunes blaring from his ipod and we were soon whizzing along the straight road, with nothing but bush as far as you can see. This was the REAL Australia - the one I had come to see!

Our first stop of the day was at a camel farm. Needless to say I was a very happy bunny. Australia actually has the largest amount of feral camels. They were used for exploration and then let go where they bred in huge numbers. H and I had a 5 minute trot on a camel called Phantom, and even Sarrie came out to say hi to his relatives!

Back on the bus we headed to Kings Canyon - our first hiking venue of the trip - and the first bit of the walk was another steep rocky staircase... my breathing at the top was proof that I had been sitting on my bottom in Sydney for too long.

Kings Canyon is where Priscilla Queen of the Desert was filmed, and is really beautiful. We headed round and saw some Ghost Gum Eucalypts. The Aborigines used the white powder from the bark as a sun screen and in times of drought the tree can cut resources to some of it limbs, drawing back the goodness from them then blocking them off and killing them. Tourniquet-ing itself - what great self preservation.

We went for a dip in the Garden of Eden waterhole. The cold water was really refreshing, but more importantly added respite from the flies. People had told me had told me how bad they were, but nothing prepares you for them. I'd thought, how bad can flies be?.... but seriously, these a flies with a mission to get in your face and stay there... FOREVER!

After our swim we walked back to the top of the canyon and lay on our tummies to peer into the base of the Canyon. Panky also showed us the Ippi ippi plant. Aborigines use the costic white liquid from this like a glue. the put it on cuts to help heal them, and also use them in women's coming of age ceremonies.

Back at the bus, and we headed to the campsite where we would be staying the night, The clouds that had been dogging us all day cleared after dinner to give us a great view of the Milky Way, and the Southern Cross. We sat around the Campfire enjoying each others company before heading to bed in our swag bags!

I have never slept out in the open before and it was a great experience. The swag is like a mattress in a waxy waterproof zipped outer - think more comfortable waterproof sleeping bag! Plus although we had to get up at 4.30am on Day Two, the sight of the stars filling the sky made it all worthwhile.

We slept as Panky drove towards Uluru, and stopped with views of Mount Conner (or Fool-uru as it looks like Uluru) for an amazing sunrise, and breakfast before the flies got too friendly. We cooked toast over a gas cooker - eating al fresco certainly gives you an appetite.

We headed off, singing loudly along with the radio, only to find 10 minutes down the road that we had left Julia behind! She had been in the loo and looked very relieved to see us... it was a pretty deserted road.

With the James Bond theme blaring we got our first sight of the big red rock itself, and I just couldn't keep my eyes of it. It seemed apt that the music changed to " we will ROCK you!"

We weren't going to get up close and personal with Uluru until this afternoon, and so headed first to the Olgas - or Kata Tjuta which means many heads on account of its look!

This is a traditional place for male Aborigines - the women are not allowed here. It was really beautiful - in fact I think I preferred it to Uluru itself - and today I had a fly net - I may look geeky, but it was a lot more enjoyable than the alternative. I got rather snap happy so there will be lots of photos of red rock to bore you all with when I return!

After another fight with the flies for lunch - it's a real art to swat flies off your sandwich and get the aforementioned item in your mouth before they return - we were off to Uluru for a visit to the cultural centre, and then a drive around the rock. The kangaroo sign had been defaced to look like the Roo was ski-ing. It was quite funny, but sad for those who had not seen a kangaroo sign yet!

That evening we prepared dinner in the car park while watching the sun set. Sadly, it was to cloudy to see the colour changes on the rock, but it was fantastic to look up from chopping the veggies and see one of the most well known landmarks in the world. It was during one of these moments that we noticed that the butternut pumpkin I was chopping bared a remarkable resemblance to Uluru, so we also created a brocolli tree and carrot olgas - playing with your food is fun!

We ate Camel meat Chilli con Carne while the sun set, and the silver top Saga tour sipped Champagne next to us. I think we had the better deal - hot and sweaty but certainly satisfied.

That night we drove down the road then turned off the road and into the bush swerving trees before stopping in a clearing and heading to get firewood and set up a campfire. We played games around the fire, before rolling out the swags and praying that the clouds would bring rain!

We headed off in the dark the next morning, and due to the clouds we weren't heading with the hoardes to the sunrise point, but headed to the sunste point so we could actually watch the sun rise and not be surrounded by other people. We had breakfast as the sun rose, and took the obligatory million photographs.

Then it was time for a walk. We walked around the whole base of Uluru - 9km - learning about the aboriganal sacred sites and the stories that go with them.

Then it was back on the bus and heading back to Alice Springs. We all went out together for one last shin dig. H and I are off to Perth in the morning, to continue the adventure.

No comments: