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Published: February 1st 2008
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We flew out of Cairns and left the clouds behind us (at long last!) and it wasn't long before we were over the outback with clear skies. We landed in Alice and as soon as we walked off the plane we could feel the heat hit us. Now you can't really call Alice a city... town is pushing it really, there are a few shops, but nothing really much to see, it was incredible when we flew over... there isn't anything for miles, it really is in the middle of absolutely nowhere! We had a wander into town on the first day to have a look around and even at 5 o'clock it was soooo hot it was a struggle. When we took a breath we could feel our nose and throat burning with the heat!!! We were both thinking how are we going to trek in this heat in a couple of days when we get to Uluru and Kings Canyon.
We had booked ourselves on a 2 night camping trip to see Uluru... having never been camping before in my life, what a great place to start in Uluru! One reason I haven't camped at home is that
I'm not particularly fond of creepy crawlies... and having spoken with a guy in Cairns, who had done a similar trip a few weeks before, he mentioned that when his group arrived at one of the camps they found a scorpion... I really had to try to put my fears aside as we headed out to Uluru! It took about 5 hours to drive to Uluru, roughly 450km's away. We stopped at a few roadhouses along the way to stock up with beers and wine for our campfire, we stopped at one called Mt Ebenezer where the population of the town was a massive 11 people!!
That afternoon we did a trek around Kata Tjuta, or The Olgas as they used to be known. Our guide advised us to take lots of water for the 1 hr walk as earlier that morning someone had to be airlifted out with serious heat stroke, in fact 3 people had died in the last week in the region... it seems that instead of worrying about the spiders, snakes and scorpions I should have been more worried about the heat and lack of water! Unfortunately we could not do the full Valley of
Kata Tjuta
or The Olgas the Winds walk as it is always closed when the temperature is 35C or above... and it certainly was well above that! Later on we made our way to Uluru to see the sunset, which was absolutely spectacular. The rock really does change to a golden red colour, although blink and you miss it... it was so quick. Afterwards, we made our way back to our camp for the first night in our swag... no tent here, just a big canvas bag with a sleeping bag inside. After checking meticulously for bugs, including huge ants that we didn't want to go anywhere near, we settled in for the night. It was still 30-something degrees when we went to sleep, although half way through the night it went down to a chilly 23C, but by waking up we got to see a magnificent star lit sky with the Milky Way clearly visible and the occasional shooting star.
The second day we were up early (4am) to see the sunrise over Uluru where it changed colour again, followed by a trek around the base. As it was still early morning, the climb should still have been open as it wasn't too
hot... but the park rangers had closed it due to high winds at the top. As the local Aboriginal people prefer you not to walk anyway, it saved a difficult decision and our conscience was clear as we started the base walk! We needed to start the walk early as by 8 o'clock they had shut the walk off as it had already gone over 35c. It took over 3 hours to complete the 9km walk, with plenty of water along the way. The only trouble was all of the water taps around the walk are mainly from underground sources a few km's away... and after a few hours in pipes baking in the outback you can just imagine what temperature it came out of the tap! Still, it was better than suffering heat stroke...
Later that day we drove over to Kings Canyon for our last night under the stars at a remote cattle station. This really was outback camping, as the previous night had been in a camp site at the Ayers Rock Resort with shower blocks etc., but this one was a 15 minute drive from the cattle station and there was no-one around for miles!
We got the campfire going where we cooked dinner and drank our wine/beers while the sun set, and next morning we were up again bright and early for another trek, this time around Kings Canyon. This one was shorter than the Uluru Base Walk at about 6km, but with steep climbs through the canyon so a bit harder than the flat Uluru walk. It took about 3 1/2 hours, although we did get to stop at a water hole in the middle of the canyon for a bit of a cool down! When we got back to the start of the trail around 10.30 we found a thermometer which showed a balmy 42C in the shade.... after 6km it felt it too!
Anyway, back on the bus and after a BBQ lunch at the cattle station, we drove back to Alice, where after camping in the middle of the outback for a couple of days it really did feel like going back to a large city! We had survived our camping trip, and the only bugs we had a problem with was the millions of flies that really do follow everyone around.
From here we travel back to
Sydney for the last few days of our Australian trip.
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