Blogs from Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 15

Port Augusta After a restful time in Hawker we headed down to Port Augusta to catch up with Rachel, a friend of ours who was returning from her own trip touring the centre and West Coast of Australia with her two kids, Britney and Ben. I had been following their blog with interest, looking forward to experiencing the same places with our family and it was a great time to see both her and the children. Our kids were most excited because they have missed the company of other children to play with and they all got along like a house on fire. It gave us confidence to see the similarities in the way we have packed and Rachel gave us hints of places to go as well, which was great. After saying goodbye the next ... read more

Day 9 7/8/2009 Kulgera to Ayres Rock (Uluru) Left Kulgera late today as we needed to do some washing and an old bich, who was staying in camp that day, raced me to the laundry and I lost - not happy Jan!!! I was even crankier when I found she was staying on for an other day. One good thing did come out of it we sorted our gear and are thinking of sending some home that we do not use. The road today was all bitumen what a nice change. We stopped at Curtin Springs for lunch under the shade of a tree and had a bit of a chat to an Emu that was wondering around free. Must be a pet he was to tame not to be. Curtin Springs is a cattle station ... read more

So 6:00 am came, and we had managed to just check out of the hotel when the bus turned up. I say bus, but it was actually a lorry chassis with a sort of bus thing stuck on the back. That was the first surprise. Anyway, Liz our tour guide introduced herself, we loaded the small amount of luggage and then got onto the bus. We then spent the next few minutes creeping around the suburbs of Alice Springs picking up other passengers, although one of the new hotels Liz couldn't find as it seemed to be on an unmarked road. After a while she managed to locate it and then we were off proper. She gave us a few facts and figures about Alice Springs and noted that this tour would not be like any ... read more

My quest to save travel money has meant my last 3 and a half months have been spent in a curious little resort town in the Northern Territory called Yulara (AKA Ayers Rock Resort). This is a place which owes its entire existence to the world's most famous monolith which is 348 metres high, 10 kilometres around its base and stands strikingly and imposingly smack bang in the middle of the red Central Australian desert. Uluru (Ayers Rock), along with Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), attract thousands upon thousands of tourists, providing jobs for penniless pommy backpackers like myself and Aussies who are either debt-ridden or saving to fund travels of their own. It was nice to spend a while no longer as a traveller but as a resident of Yulara, in a place which may contain ... read more

27/9/09 Off early & on the way to Uluru, we plan to stay 2 nights along the way, just outside of Alice we saw 2 Dingos by the road which was a first for us. We also saw about 5 big eagles in a tree, boy are they big. Since in the NT we have noticed that there is not as much road kill, I don’t know if there are not a s many road trains to kill the Roo’s. We thought this might be a bit of a boring drive, but far from it. The mountain ranges & rocky outcrops to the red soil & colourful rocks is amazing. I kept taking pics out the window & Den & I were in awe of this big land of ours. We passed a few free spots ... read more