Getting up at 5am is never fun no matter where you are in the world even somewhere as amazing as Oz but that is what we had to do today for our 7.30 am flight to Uluru. The suitcases were packed (again) and it was a short walk in the cold and dark to the airport. We were waiting eagerly for the breakfast and when it came it was like my worst nightmare - each tray had a banana on it and they were all facing the same way - as you looked down the aisle all you could see were [View Full Entry]

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We drove past a place called Tennant Creek and arrived at the Devils Marbles, these are known to the local Aboriginal people as Karlukarlu, they are believed to be the eggs of the Rainbow serpent. Although everyone has different beliefs according to scientists they are the granite remains of molten lava after millions of years of weathering. We decided to take a closer look at the rocks as they looked like they would just roll off at any given moment. After striking many poses with the rocks we came across a small camp ground right in the middle of the "marbles" [View Full Entry]

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Few days in central Australia. Start in Alice Springs then head off for a 3 day tour of Uluru (Ayres Rock), Kata Tjuta (Olgas) and Kings Canyon. Sleeping in the bush in a swag. [View Full Entry]

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Big groups, little bus should be the motto of adventure tours, 24 people crammed into the tinniest bus ever and we were ready to set off on the tour of the Red centre. 4am is a strange time, I don't know if it is the fact that your are still in a sleepy trance or the worldly truth that it is an ungodly hour (unless you are returning from a nightclub, then it is a good night). The reason we graced this ungodly hour was to see one of the wonders of the red centre the sunrise at Uluru (ayers rock). [View Full Entry]

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Today we had a very early start (6am!) from Alice Springs to head to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (Ayres Rock to you and me) for a 3 day tour. Ayres Rock Resort is about 500km west of Alice Springs but we were going to be visiting other places along the way so a lot more driving was involved. On the first day we headed to the magnificent Watarraka (Kings Canyon) National Park where we did a 6km (4 hour) guided hike around the rim of the canyon, in the hottest part of the day (not the best time, 39 degrees C). [View Full Entry]

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The Red Centre is very hot!! That evening we watch the sunset over the rock with nibbles and champagne (very civilised!) followed by a silver service dinner under the stars. It was very odd seeing all the tables laid up for a posh dinner in the middle of nowhere, but also very cool. We also had a tour of the stars from a very knowlegable young man. Some of the sky looked a bit strange, but that is because the only constellation I knew previously (Orion) is upside down! There was also a didgeradoo recital which lent a certain ambience to [View Full Entry]

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some of the best times in my life - especially that night under the stars thank-you [View Full Entry]

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Claire and I spent a few days on a tour around Uluru and the Red Centre. We went with a group of about 15 people from UK, Germany, Holland, Switzerland etc. Luckily we had a very good Australian guide (we'd spoken to some other people who had been on tours who hadn't had good tour guides). We spent the 2 nights camping at a site about 20mins away from Uluru. Unfortunately we couldn't do the walk up Uluru as it was closed, initially because of the temperature (it was 45 degrees when we were there, and the walk is closed if [View Full Entry]

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Uluru [View Full Entry]

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I'm writing this in Melbourne, having arrived here after finishing my tour to Uluru. What can I say...it was fantastic. And hot. It was both more fantastic and hotter than I thought possible...the scenery in central Australia is stunning. It's a land of stark contrasts, between the bright blue sky, the deep red soil, the green of the bushes and trees (it's only semi-arid there, hence the greenery), the white of the gum trees and the blackened trunks of many of the trees. I could look at it for hours, which was good as hours to look at it was what [View Full Entry]

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