Blogs from Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 13

Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park is a very sacred site to the Anangu Aboriginal people and with it the Red Centre the spiritual heart of Australia. Touring this area would be our final five days in the Northern Territory. There is only one campsite in Uluru national park and being budget backpackers this was over our budget for the amount of time we planned to stay so we free camped just outside of the national park. The only problem with this was we had no access to a shower so one morning we did sneak into the campsite for a quick 5 minute shower, what rebels we are! We were waiting on the weather improve so that we were able to make the most of a visit to Uluru so we decided to visit to ... read more

Just had the best three days in the Red Centre. The scenery is amazing and the trip was hard work, but so enjoyable! My friend Andrew finally flew in from Hong Kong after a two day delay (due to the snow at home in London, couldn't be further from the weather here!) Me and Siobhan packed up our apartment we departed Melbourne for Alice Springs, a small town in the middle of Australia. The aboriginal locals sit out and about everywhere in any shady area. There's a stark contrast between the aboriginals and the tourists. I think homelessness must be a big problem and the community as a whole probably has bigger problems, but the people hanging around everywhere with dirty clothes and smelling of body odour did make me feel a little uneasy. I wouldn't ... read more

Nachdem wir unseren treuen Weggefährten an der Ostküste, unser Spaceship, mit etwas Wehmut zurückgegeben haben, ging es mit dem Flieger nach Alice Springs (dem Tor zum „roten Zentrum“ - Outback). Als wir aus dem Flugzeug ausgestiegen sind, liefen wir gegen eine Hitzewand. Der Weg vom Flugzeug zum recht übersichtlichen Flughafengebäude bei 44 Grad im Schatten war bereits so anstrengend, dass der Respekt vor den kommenden Tagen im Outback weiter wuchs. Im Hotel angekommen haben wir uns als erstes im kühlen Pool abgekühlt und anschließend in Vorfreude auf die vor uns liegenden Strapazen im Whirlpool entspannt. Am folgenden Morgen mussten wir bereits um 5 Uhr aufstehen, da wir um 6.05 Uhr von unserem Guide David (Rastaman) abgeholt wurden. Was wir zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch nicht wussten, die Weckzeit sollte in den nächsten Tagen noch unchristlicher werden…Wenigstens kam ... read more

Excerpt from my book Our Summer in Australia & New Zealand: Amazon.com Day Eleven. I had been looking forward to this day since first planning the trip to Australia. Climbing Ayers Rock at sunrise! It’s really not dangerous. Since records were kept beginning in 1960, there’s been only one fatality every two years, on average. Considering my life so far, those are very acceptable odds. The joke going around is that the coroner’s report on the cause of death for people climbing the Rock is, “death by lens cap” — another tourist dropped something halfway up the rock and forgot the warning not to chase it down. The Rock usually wins. Actually, what fatalities there have been are from out of condition people (probably American) being overcome and suffering stroke, heart failure or heat prostration in ... read more

So... after a gap of a few days I've finally found the time to get on with this blog again. The day after the last post Agnes arrived in Alice Springs. We didn't really see much of the sights of Alice and basically just had a relaxing day before going off on a tour into the Red Centre of Australia the following day. We departed at stupid hours in the morning (something that was going to get all too familiar over the next few days), and after an unseemly amount of faffing about with the luggage, started on the long road to Uluru (or Ayer's Rock as it is often known as). There was a very brief stop at a camel farm, which had a tame dingo and (surprise, surprise) some camels. After half a ... read more