Blogs from Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 18

We arrived in Alice Springs and were a bit disappointed that we'd left Sydney in glorious sunshine and arrived in the Red Centre where it was pouring down with rain.. we thought it wasn't supposed to rain in the desert! We had our 3 day Uluru trip booked for the following day so spent the afternoon sheltering from the rain, exploring Alice Springs town centre (not really that much to explore) and preparing ourselves for a very early start of 5am the next day. We got up with no problem the next morning and were very excited to be going to explore the centre of Australia along with the other 22 people in our group and Mark our guide. Off we headed to Kings Canyon, the first stop for our journey into the red desert. On ... read more

"Dare I say it but that is one mighty big rock." Would you believe that it only rains about 10 days of the year at Uluru and it was raining when we arrive. This only adds to the mystical appearance of this great big orange rock, and in fairness brings the tempurature down from 40 degrees so I was not complaining. It was by far at its best for sunset, will try to get some piccies up when we have more time. It really was impressive, and humbling to see. Another good time was meant to be sunrise, so we fell out of bed at 4:30 and drove down. It was good (I am sure) as we promptly fell asleep in the car! After a couple of days we were pleased with the trip but glad ... read more

Our taxi arrived at 8.30am to take us to the airport, and by 10.30am we were taking off for Ayers Rock Airport. The landscape became more and more barren as we travelled further inland. It wasn’t long before the ground beneath us was a patchwork of browns and ambers. As we approached the airport the land looked like a red table cloth with black sand scattered across it. As we descended I realised the black dots were trees, against the red sand they looked so dark. As we stepped off the plane we were met with a full on blast of heat. We’d been warned it would be hot but we hadn’t expected this. We were pleased to get into the tiny air conditioned airport terminal. There was only one baggage carousel and as it was ... read more

Arrived in Alice Springs to thunderstorms and river flooding which hasn't happened for 16 years ! Roads closed as under water. ( Not my fault - honest!). Have great pictures of Aborigine children playing in the brown water. Don't know why they weren't at school. Alice is weird place , there is an uneasiness about it which makes a tourist feel uncomfortable. There are groups of disconnected Aborigines wandering around or sitting in groups on the grass. Bit of a probelm with alcohol too. Whites don't talk to them except for a few tourists as there is sometimes 'artwork' to buy. I chatted to an old couple by the river who were eating cold tinned spaghetti off newspaper for breakfast. They had had their blanket stolen and were going to Melbourne. Alice is just a stop ... read more

After an extensive bus journey through the streets of downtown Sydney early in the morning we had an uneventful flight over barren red lands. It was strange to be heading to an airport in the middle of nowhere with no big skyscrapers or any buildings of note for miles around. The bus picked us up and took us to the resort only 5minutes down the road and 30km from the rock itself. On checking in we were informed that we had booked two male dorm rooms but a brief discussion later the manager saw our point regarding the online booking process and upgraded us to a smaller dorm at no cost. Result! It ended up that in our 4bed dorm we had no roomies for the 3 nights that we stayed there. We had booked on ... read more