Alice Springs - One tour to "rock" them all!

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Alice Springs
I arrived in Alice Springs (Northern Territory) roughly one week ago. After an amazing and comfortable train trip on The Ghan I was ready to take on the outback. It's hard to imagine that anything like this town can sustain itself out here, but luckily I arrived at the perfect time of the year; 30 degrees, wind and actually a bit of rain. A local guy I spoke to on the train mentioned, that untill a few weeks ago, Alice Springs had had 42 degrees dai ly with only a few millimeters of rain. Pretty rough! I got off the train and got lured into a bus belonging to one of the many hostels here.



The hostel was called "Annies Place" and I must admit that this is probably one of the best hostels I have stayed at so far. It had great facilities: big kitchen, swimming pool, free wifi, washing, breakfast and the best bar in Alice Springs. Awesome! Annies Place even arranged different tours to some of the famous locations of the outback. I had to act quickly though, because I found out that the 3-day tour to Ayers Rock, Kings canyon and kata tjuta was due to start the morning after my arrival. I bought the tour, crossing my fingers and hoped it would be worth it... 350 dollars is a fair bit of money afterall.



The tour-bus left the hostel at 6am sharp and we were 17 people in total. Our tourguide was called Steve and he turned out to be really awesome and up for having alot of fun while giving us a good experience. The first day we drove a few hours to go to Kings Canyon (comparable to Gorge Du Verdon in France or even Grand Canyon). We did a 4 hour walk there and the place was simply awesome! About halfway through the walk we reached a small pool called "The Garden of Eden" and went for a swim. Perfectly located in a small grove, that was probably the best part of the walk. We reached the end a bit tired, got into the bus and drove further on into the outback.

Our next location was the campsite where we would spend the night - it was a small wooden lodge in the middle of the bush. The same night we had a big bbq. Camelburgers, kangaroo steaks and lots of veggies made the perfect meal and the mood was exceedingly high. I had already made friends with most of the people on the bus so the conversation was going strong most of the evening (we had beer too of course).We all slept in Swags that night. It's hard to explain what it is, but think of it as a sleeping bag with a roof - our heads weren't covered, so we crossed our fingers for a dry night.





The next day we drove for a few hours to get to The Olgas (Katatjuta), which is similar to Uluru in many ways. Katatjuta means "many heads" in aboriginee and was a small mountain range consisting of big round rocks. It was a very beautiful sight and the walk we did there was really interesting. Our guide Steve had much insight in the plantlife and vegetation there, which he shared with us. We finished up and drove on to our campsite late in the evening just in time to see the sun set on Uluru. Probably the most remarkable sunset I have seen in my life. It makes up for a very touristy picture naturally, but it was so much more. Finally we were present in the real outback watching the sun set on one of the most iconic Australian heritages. We had champagne, cheese, crackers and lots of beer to go by and it made it a truly unforgettable experience!





Next morning we took off early from our camp to watch the sunrise on Uluru. While not as spectacular as the sunset, it was still really awesome to see the massive rock lightening up. We drove back to camp and had a massive morning bbq with eggs, sausages and best of all: bacon. If there is something I have missed its bacon. Next priority: walk around Uluru. Its a base walk that takes about 2 hours and most of the group did it. Usually it would have been possible to climb on top of Uluru, but it was way too windy to do that unfortunately. We finished the small walk and hopped on to the bus. The tour was over and we made our way back to Alice Springs, which is a good 5 hour bus drive. We all met up for dinner at the hostel the same night and got really really drunk and happy!



It was a good conclusion to an amazing trip, where I made new friends and aquintances. My network around the world is increasing rapidly every day - soon i wont even have to look for hostels when travelling around Europe! Its really nice to know that the people you meet and travel with are just as open and welcoming as yourself, so I am of course also expecting visitors some time in the future, when I have my own place in Copenhagen. I cant wait! Talk to you's later 😊

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