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Published: August 8th 2006
Really enjoyed this trip -it was an organised 6 day tour with adventure tours and we had a fantastic time
Day one: started as was to be the theme for the rest of the trip very early! Not a full minibus but almost full, the lights were off to let people sleep but most people were too excited! We arrive at our first toilet stop and its freezing! I have not been this cold in a long time - time for a hot chocolate! Then more driving and onto Kings Canyon.
Kings Canyon:
First we had some lunch, then its time to begin our walk of the Canyon - all people on the trip opt for the hardcore option which starts with a climb up something aptly nicknamed "Heart Attack Hill!" We did it in 3 stages and it was pretty hard but not the worst mountain I've climbed (I sound so hardcore and worldly don't i? don't answer that!). The view from the top was worth it though. Kings Canyon is beautiful and full of suprises such as the garden of eden and the amazing rock formations of the area nicknamed the lost city. Twas a really good
walk and I'd recommend it to anyone. Also the place where parts of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was filmed.
Yulura Campsite:
On our way to the campsite we stopped off to take some photo's of fool-a-ru a rock which is often mistaken by tourists for ayers rock (uluru). Also stopped to gather firewood on the way from the bush-brilliant! It was dark by the time we got to the campsite -there were canvas huts/ tents alreay set up with bunk beds in but myself and a few others decided to be hardcore and sleep outsinde in an aussie swag! An aussie swag is basically a 2 inch thick bedroll with a canvas outer bit to cover you - its like an enormous sleeping bag with a padded bottom half. You do of course have a sleeping bag inside it aswell. I was very suprised but i was actually warm all night, it was just the getting out of it into the cold cold world that was hard! I awoke in the middle of the night to see a dingo prowling arpound the campsite, suddenly getting out of bed to go to the toilet could wait until everyone else
was awake! It was probably just scavenging for scraps of food and no threat to me or the others at all, they are just curious creatures and as usual, probably more scared of us than we are of them.
Day 2: Uluru (Ayers rock) and the Kata Tjuta's (the Olga's)
Uluru:
The day started very early with a base walk at sunrise around Ayers rock -there was the option to do the 9.2 kilometre base walk, climb it or watch sunrise from the viewing area. It wasn't possible to do the climb at sunrise as it was too windy. the Aborigini's really don't like you to climb it and there were signs everywhere saying please don't climb too! Apparently if someone dies, the Aboriginies close the entire national park and have a huge grieving ceremony which lasts several days and includes them cutting themselves because they feel responsible for the person dying. So anyway back to the base walk! I don't are what anyone says about Uluru just being a big rock in the middle of nowhere (there was a rather rude comedy song on this subject played later on in the day which I'm not allowed
to put the title of on this website!) but it is either one of or, the worlds largest monolith and it is special and I didn't regret spending the money I did to go and see it. The best word is magical to describe how it looks and feels as it changes colour in the early morning light! It took us a long time to walk round and I probably took one or two photo's too many but i didn't care! After we completed the base walk we went onto visit the Olga's but we came back to uluru later in the day so I'll keep it in this section. In the afternoon most of our original group had returned to Alice springs leaving the fab six to continue the journey down to Adelaide with Jess! Most of us chose to do a cultural walk with jess around parts of "the rock" to learn about the traditional uses of Uluru and see some aboringinal cave art. A couple braved the arduous climb to the top of Uluru though! We saw the area's traditional used for cooking and some ceremony's as well as where young aborigini men were left for their
Fool-a-ru
Known as mount connor, foolaru and the giant toothbrush this is often mistaken by tourists as Uluru (or Ayers rock)on their way from kings canyon to Ayers rock resortcoming of age tests. Jess also told us some of the aborigini legends about how the shape of various parts of the rock were formed. We also had a a bit of time to visit the cultural centre and learn a bit more about the traditional aborigini way of life and philosophies. Then it was onto the sunset viewing area to watch the sunset from far away and attempt to get some of those postcard style pictures! We also watched the sunset with free champagne and nibbles!
Kata Tjuta (the olga's or translated from the aborigini words, many heads) comprise of 36 large monoliths all close together. Apparently, they along with uluru and mount connor(foolaru) are part of an ancient mountain range which was pushed up when the continents collided (they support continental drift theory)and from the air it can be seen that they run in a straight line. But they are different types of rock and were treated slightly differently over time which is why they are different shapes. The domes of the olga's were very impressive and whilst we were there, we did the valley of the winds walk. As you can imagine this was very cold
and very windy but worth it as the olga's were awe inspiring.
In the evening (having consumed 2 bottles of free champagne between the 6 of us at sunset) we set the table for dinner and had a really hilarious evening! basically there were some safari in style people camping next door (this means that you do nothing re: food preparation/ washing up) and we spent the evening loudly pretending that we were eating caviar and drinking champers darling (well we were drinking champagne) I think it was that evening that I got the nickname Hermione! The whole group slept out in a swag again this evening with the campfire burning beside us and the stars over our heads! Brilliant!
Day 3: Coober Pedy
The next day we had to be up very early to pack up camp for the journey to Coober Pedy. It was very long and we got to sleep on the bus for a while before we were rudely awoken by the lion king opening music, thanks for that Jess! We arrived into Coober Pedy mid afternoon and went on a quick tour of the city and then on an opal mine tour before
fossicking for opal's and going for pizza for dinner! Let me explain a bit about Coober Pedy. It was founded when a young boy wandered off without his parents permission whilst they were crossing the outback and had stopped to set up camp. He not only found a water source but he discovered opal's. Then people were flocking from all over OZ to start in the opal mining business! One of the unique things about Coober Pedy apart from the opals in the area is that a lot of the residents live in underground houses, primarily because in the summer, the temperatures can rocket up to 50 degrees C!!!!!!!!! One of the laws in Coober Pedy is that you cannot mine opals within the city limits, however you can buy an area of land to build your underground house into and if you happen to come across opals as you build, they are yours to keep and do with what you will. Hence lots of people often extend their houses frequently and apparently some have made their fortune that way! It cost 20000 australian dollars to buy the land (roughly) and a good sized house takes approximately a week to
build! By the way fossicking is a word to describe sifting through pieces of rock for opals, inside the city limits are some piles of left over debry from mining/ making houses and non residents are welcome to sift through it. One person in our group actually managed to find a genuine piece of opal! The rest of us found feldspar or something! Also we slept in an underground hostel in Coober Pedy which was really cool and as soon as the lights went out it was pitch black all night long, it was the best nights sleep I'd had for ages!
Day 4: Flinders Ranges
We were up early again (this was kind of a theme for the trip) and journeyed onwards to the Flinders ranges. On the way we stopped briefly at lake hart, one of the many salt lakes found in south australia, the driest state on the driest continent! it seeemed huge but apparently its one of the smaller ones - check out the pictures! jess told us that we were not to try and taste the salt as it is infact a radioactive salt lake after some nuclear testing was done nearby back in
the 60's. Hence lots of amusing photo's taken by a warning sign! As well as some very cool photo's making good use of the high sun and white colour of the lake. There was no water in the part we were on, just encrusted salt!
We then stopped off in Port Augusta for BBQ lunch before heading on deeper into the Flinders mountain ranges. We spent the night at Rawnsley Park Sheep Station in the Flinders ranges which was really beautiful and so peaceful and quiet (well apart from us!) and we saw loads of kangaroo's in the wild. Actually we saw loats of wildlife on the entire trip including; kangaroo's, emu's, wallabies and wedge-tailed eagles-unfortuantely the wedge tailed eagles were often feeding on kangaroo's which had been hit by cars. We stopped everytime we saw one to check for joeys (baby kangaroo's) and to move the carcass off the road to stop the eagles getting hit -well I say we, I mean Jess!
Day 5: Wilpena Pound
Up early to visit Wilpena Pound which is a huge valley with only one way in and out (hence its called a pound). It's really beautiful and we had two options
Our post Uluru sunset with champers!!!!!!
lovingly laid by the German boys on our trip, the table was later adorned with euclyptus branches - there were many jokes about caviar etc banded about the table that night, we may have annoyed the safari in style campers next door who did no table laying or food prep of their own! to do for the walk, either the valley walk or a hike up a mountain! I of course chose the gruelling climb up the mountain (it wasn't that bad, well maybe at times it was!) and was rewarded with some spectacular views. Check out the one of me sitting on a precipice, I'm so terrified but the view over the Flinders ranges is amazing! If you look down into the pound there are patches where nothing grows, these are area's where a family tried to grow crops in but failed, it's said that nothing grows because it was a sacred aborigini area. I can't remember exactly but the aborigini believe that the shape of the pound was formed by two enormous snakes which killed a tribe living there and then died.
We continued on exploring the Flinders for the rest of the day, on our way to Parachilna where we spent the night. We visited some of the old homesteads of european settlers, a copper mine and a place nicknamed death rock by the europeans as the local aborigini's would bring people here when they died. The european settlers did not last long as conditions in the flinders and
Our group at the border of south australia
Left to right: Sarah (norma, irish, corky), Jan (the German 2), Julian (The German), Annali (team nokia, gretchen), Lorenza (team mexico, fernanda) and me (hermione, english) south australia were harsh and not suitable for farming either crops or livestock.
parachilna is a tiny little village with a permanent population of 3 and a few temporary workers aswell who work in the hotel, pub and hostel which is there. it was actually a really cool hostel and the poeple we met in the pub were really nice. We also had a proper aussie BBQ with kangaroo steaks and emu burgers! Mmmm delicious!
Day 6: Clare Valley
Our Final day of the tour very sad, heading towards Adelaide, back through the flinders ranges and onto the Clare Valley for wine tasting! Our first stop was a place called Melrose and we had lunch here as well as tasting some wine! My favourite winery was a place called O' Reillys - run by a belian man called Andre, they had some truly great wines which unfortunately they do not export to the UK. We then went on to play in a maze and we also stopped in a place called Murray town and made an amusing video for Jess's brother Murray who is in Canada at the moment. Then it was onto Adelaide and we all went
out for chinese in the evening. Had so much fun on this trip and definately don't regret it! So many amusing memories!
Then spent a couple of days in Adelaide which is a nice almost countrified city. Visited the chocolate factory (would you expect anything less?) and generally wandered about on the first day. On the second day I was booked on a wine valley tour of the Barossa Valley with groovy grape and this was good fun. For one thing I got to go and visit that icon of some british wine drinkers, Jacob's Creek! I did end up buying some wine from a boutique winery. Very nice stuff, yummy! We went to 4 wineries in total - 3 before lunch! Also learnt a little bit about the state of south australia -it's a very liberal state, it was the first state to decriminalise homosexuality and ahs some slightly relaxed drug laws too.
From then it was on Melbourne where my lovely friend Jayne and her boyfriend Glenn let me stay for about a week! More in the next blog!
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