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Hi all! Wow, im on the ball today with yet another blog. Thought i would write just before i leave the land of Oz to update on my latest adventures Just got back from a 9 day camping trip travelling up from Alice springs to Darwin which was really good. Had 3 days travelling around alice area visiting Uluru (Ayres rock) and the olgas which was fab. First day After a 5am start (which was to be the standard for the rest of the trip!) we set of and had a visit to a camel farm where me and caz had the chance to ride a camel which was good fun and extremely bumpy. I dont think the boys enjoyed that too much! We then had a bit of a journey and eventually arrrived at the olgas that afternoon and had a walk through the valley of the winds which was really cool although those flies-Oh My God, they are sooooo annoying. many people had invested in a fly net hat thingy to protect the face but they given that they arent all that fetching and the flies still buzz around your face we didnt bother. Never known anything like them-hate
Camel riding
Could not stop laughing on this. A fun 5 minutes! to think what its like in the height of summer!
Anyway, from there it was off to 'the rock'-uluru to watch the sunset. That was excellent because as the sun is setting you get to observe all the different colours that the rock transforms through so managed to take loads of photos. WE then headed off to our first camp site which both me and caroline were rather impressed by as we were expecting to pitch tents etc etc but since they are permanent camps the tents are more like little canvas cabins with beds in! So a night was spent round the camp fire bonding with our new group of travelling companions (19 of us in total) who were all a great bunch of people with the token crazy ones you need to make the trip fun.
Early morning again the next day as we were back off to uluru to watch the sunrise which was good but not as good as the sunset as i think it was a bit hazy. We then had the option of doing a base walk around uluru or actually climbing the rock. The night before i had decided to just do the
base walk as the rock is sacred and the aboriginis request that you dont climb it. Also the fact that it is extremely steep and many people have fallen off and killed themselves in the past. However when we drove up to the start of the climb i couldnt resist and decided to climb it with a couple of other people on my trip. My god it was steep and one chain running up it to hold onto. There were families walking up it who really shouldnt have because i think it was a tad more demanding than they expected and there was little kids crying as they were soo scared which i thought was really bad. But for me, the climb was worth it. Some people say uluru is just a big rock in the middle of nowhere but once id climbed it you appreciate the vastness of it. Its massive and like walking on mars or something due to the rock type. All pretty spectacular i thought!
It was then another long drive to our next camp ground at kings canyon. The following morning we then had the chance to walk through the canyon which was again really
Ayres Rock
Uluru at sunset good. Not quite as big as the colca canyon but got chance to explore more of it than we did the colca canyon so appreciated it more. The was an opportunity to swim in the water hole in the garden of eden but rather cold water for us all so noone in the group did then a 60 yr old man came along and jumped in and put us all to shame.
From there we headed back to Alice and had a night in the malankas hostel, which to be honest-its more luxury camping than staying here-its a dive and i would advised anyone not to stay here! Had a bit of a party in the bar next door and had to dance like a kangaroo on the stage to help towards winning a competition. However i got off lightly as the games got worse.
From there the next 3 days were spent travelling from Alice up to Darwin. A lot of us were dissappointed with this part of the trip, but to be honest there isnt that much to see between the 2 towns and its such a large distance to cover. Once we'd seent he devils marbles there
Uluru conquered
The explores, me, michael and liz were a lot of very dull stops along the way but neccessary ones i think to re fuel. However there were quite a few waterfalls and water holes (billabongs) for us to jump out at and refresh!
By the time we arrived in Darwin, we stayed in yet another really grotty hostel-the worst one yet i think-Cavaghnas (for anyone who is considering coming to darwin) and another early start the next day to start our final leg-3 days around Kakadu national park. which are like the wetlands of the northern territory. Unfortunaly since it was the end of the wet season and a cyclone had just hit about a week eariler there were parts of the park shut and inaccessible and i think it was rather a tough job for the tour guides to keep us happy. But regardless we all had a good time and the group was excellent so plenty of fun to be had! Much of it laughing at Ross, the 'Crazy accountant' and the irish couple dave and angela and Ruth from wales!
WE got the chance to swim in loads of waterfalls, unfortunately on the last one the rocks were really slippy and before we'd
gone in 3 people slipped and fell in and broke their cameras, ooppps, they were gutted so no more waterfalls to be had, we'd had enough! We saw huge termit mounds which are everywhere here (even bigger than those we saw in south america i think). Caroline ate a green ant which tasted of citrus apparently. Bring it on celebrity get me out of here! WE went on a walk around original aborigini sites and got to see the wall paintings that they did which was interesting and finally ended the trip with a crocadile boat cruise and got to see some huge crocs up close!
All in all a fab trip with no major creepy crawlies to scare us. Have probably swallowed about 10 spiders in my sleep though since there were loads in our tents! Im also currently covered in mossie bites as there are loads here and must like the taste of me better than the ones in south america.
Its our last day in Australia today and will be flying out to singapore in about 4 hours time. Have booked a flight to koh samui where we will spend time relaxing then up to bangkok for
Garden of eden
On walk through kings canyon some shopping before setting off home.
So, see you all very soon. Cannot wait to catch up with everyone
Bye
Nads x x x x x x x
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