Current Mood: Happy & Tired

So we arrived into Alice Springs and despite the warm weather, were surprised with how busy it actually was.  This wasn’t the way out west town any of us were picturing so came as a nice surprise.

The YHA hostel that we booked was comfortable and had a pool in which we could throw ourselves to cool down.  Which we did hastily…

In the morning the ‘Rock Tours’ representative Kate came and picked us up (6am!) and we were taken around the various hostels picking up all manner of nationality – Swedish, Dutch, Danish, German, Irish and of course us English.  The journey to our first stop was a long drive and I had my head back counting Z’s for most of the trip, most of the bus was silent as other like-minded people prepared for what was coming.

[zp]outback[/zp]

First stop was King’s Canyon and when we exit the mini-bus we felt the heat.  My face began to melt, my body began to throw sweat out in a way that the bloke in the Lynx advert would seem like he has only a mild problem, then I find out that we only have to go and do a 7km trek!  The temperature was 42 in the shade and we had to first navigate a sheer slope to the rim of the canyon.  It was a struggle – definately…  Poor ol’ Lucy hates having to walk up hills, yet she grit her teeth and made it to the top – feeling half dead, but had still managed.

The rest of the walk was a piece of cake compared to the first bit and we were treated to a swim in a natural waterhole halfway round.  Yippeeeee…

Back in the bus, all of us drenched from head to foot we all began chatting.  A guy called Tobi from Germany got everyones spirits up as he larked and joked around in the front.  The stories around the coach had everyone laughing and joining in, singing songs and swapping stories.
We drove for a while taking in sights and talking about the day before reaching our first camp ground – well, not so much a camp ground as a desolate place in the middle of nowhere.  When Kate turned the lights out on the bus however, the sky lit up and the stars were everywhere – looking so close you could almost touch them.  We cooked around torch light (too dry for a campfire, don’t want to be responsible for a huge bushfire!) and had noodles with chicken, vegetables and moth’s.  yum yum…

Next day we were up really early to walk around the Olgas Paul from England and Marc from Holland kept me company and the trek went really quick.  This was another 8km walk and when we got back to the start we noticed that the Rangers had put up a sign saying the walk was shut due to extreme temperatures -thanks for telling us.

[zp]outback[/zp]

After this short trek we went to Uluru to do a short walk called the Male walk, this was really interesting and we leart a lot about the Aboriginal people and ‘Chooc or paa’ (I can;t spell it, but it is the term used for everything, life, law, the land, history, present and past).

Time to see Uluru at Sunset and it lived upto it’s reputation, it was truly beautiful and something I will remember forever.

Camping that night was at a pre-defined campsite and we got to grab a swim and stuff earlier in the evening.  That made do as my bath and shower at the same time.

In the morning we were up at 4.30 to see Sunrise – this too was an awesome experience and sharing it with so many friends made it that extra special.

Next was the Base walk and while Emma walked with Bien and Lucy, Sarah walked with Marc and I walked with Tobi, all of us chatting and passing the time.  A 9km walk later and we are back at the minibus ready to go home…  It was an amazing tour, with some amazing people whom I hope to stay in contact with.  There are too many people to list and talk about here, but if you read this – thanks for making the trip special.  Look after yourselfs – Paul x

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