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Published: November 24th 2007
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So... after getting our van serviced at the Alice Springs depot, and finding out it is no way near the worst and most offensive design, we headed out to the MacDonnell Ranges either side of Alice. The highlight here was seeing a couple of small and very rare black-footed Rock Wallabies at Simpson's Gap.
Our next stop was King's Canyon about 450km from Alice. The night we arrived we managed to see a great sunset over the bush and were then joined by some ferrel camels roaming around. Next morning we did the rim walk around King's Canyon which provided some amazing views across the
Red Centre of the Outback along with the spectacular scenery of the Canyon itself. The Canyon also shelters a little oasis of tropical plants which have survived in this small ecosystem from millions of years ago when the climate was markedly different. After lunch it was about another 6 hour drive to
Uluru (Ayer's Rock) (Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park). Its funny how the distance from Alice to Uluru looks insignificant on a big map of Australia, it almost looks just around the corner, but actually its 500km away!
Our first day there we got
up early to see the sun come up over
The Rock from a distance at our campsite lookout. Later that morning we drove out to
Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) a few kms away, and its a shame that they're so over-shaddowed by the Rock as they're equally impressive and probably more interesting to walk around on The Valley of the Winds Walk. After lunch we drove to the Rock itself and went to attempt the base walk, definate mistake in the afternoon, so we called it a day due to too much sun in this extremely hot environment. We parked up early at the sunset viewing point for the Rock, and we're so happy that we got a perfect sunset over this world icon. It was a particularly special experience watching the changing colours of the Rock at sunset and understood in a small way why this place is so sacred to the Aborigines. Truly the essence of Australia!
We were up early again for the second day in order to do a small ranger-guided walk called the Mala Walk at the Rock and then do the base walk. As in Kakadu, the good thing about having the ranger
there is that we were able to learn more about Aboriginal culture and particularly the significance of Uluru to the
Pitjantjatjara people of that particular region. The ranger tried to help us understand that the indiginous people do not see the Rock as a rock in a scientific manner as we do, but in a completely spiritual manner. When they look at it they actually see their
creation being ancestors residing there, this ties in with how they view the land as like an ancestor which they care for and then correspondingly sustains them. They also believe their spirit comes from the land and goes back to the land after death. All this is coupled with the fact that around the Rock there are a few permanent waterholes which have been life-sustaining through droughts for thousands of years in this desert environment. Again, we'll try to cover the Aboriginal culture in seperate blog maybe at the end of our Australian trip as we're learning more about the culture at various places we go, plus there are also differences in the culture in different areas. We then went onto do the 3hr base walk which was still fairly draining due to
the sun and heat, even in the morning. We're realising just how good a buy our hats were! Before leaving the park we stopped in at the Cultural Centre to find out more about the Aboriginal way of life especially all the various bush tucker which they manage to find in this desert! It never ceases to amaze us how they manage to survive relatively comfortably in these harsh environments we've been driving through, but it all comes down to their knowledge of the land which is unbelievable!
The next morning we set off for a day on the road after showering with a million huge moths! We drove about 500kms and crossed the state border into South Australia leaving the Northern Territory behind. The next day we stopped in at the desert town of Coober Pedy where people live underground because it gets so hot in the summer months, sometimes up to 50 degrees C! The day we were there it was a roasting 42 degrees! Its a funny little town full of some quite eccentric characters who've clearly spent too long in the desert looking for Opals, as this is the Opal capital of the world. We
did actually go on a tour of the Umoona Opal Mine and Museum which was really informative and gave a good history of the town and opal-mining, we then spent a while chatting to the owner of the gem store there, a nice man called Yarni who's daughter actually went to the same university as us! Small world!
The following day was a gruelling 700kms on the road in order to get from Coober Pedy to Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges National Park. On the way we tried to have lunch at a salt lake called Lake Hart in the middle of the desert, however the flies (which are a constant pain around all of Oz) were unbelievable, as in cover your face! Not great when having lunch. Covering that huge distance in one day did provide an interestingly stark contrast in scenery though, we went from the vast, flat expanses of scorching, desolate desert to the green trees, agriculture, sheep, kangaroos and hills of the Flinders Ranges.
In the morning we did the really nice but challenging 4 hr walk up Mt. Ohlsen-Bagge to get great views of Wilpena Pound, this was made easier by the
Outback Sunset
Kings Creek (Not the canyon!) slightly chilly wind, actually a nice change from the intense dry heat of the desert. Wilpena Pound makes for truly striking scenery and unfortunately won't be adequately reflected in our photos. After, we stocked up at Port Augusta and then camped up for the night at Mt Remarkable where we had a wild emu wander by and check out what we were having for dinner.
The next day was mainly a leisurely drive through the lovely scenic wine-making region of the Clare Valley until we arrived in the late afternoon at the premier wine-producing region of Australia - The Barossa Valley. We felt it would be wrong of us to move on quickly from this area and unsurprisingly the next day we felt the little town of Tanunda and particularly its wineries needed some exploring! ;-)
After grabbing freshly baked bread and some cheese for our picnic we set off for our first wine-tasting at Richmond Grove Winery which was a really nice place, we also had a free tour of the winery and learnt a bit about the wine-production process. We later found out that a lot of Jacob's Creek wine is actually produced and stored there. After
our picnic in the lovely grounds, we stopped in at Peter Lehmann Wines where we tried quite a large spectrum of wines both white and red, our favourite being a really nice red Cabernet Merlot blend.
Our 3rd and final stop was our favourite winery of the day, Langmeil Winery, where the helpful assisstant Jonathan spoke to us for a couple of hours imparting plenty of information and advice about wine, wine-tasting and the wine-industry in a really friendly and down to earth manner, all the while never leaving our glasses empty! The highlight here was tasting their premier $100 Shiraz "Freedom" wine which isn't normally available for tasting, needless to say it was delicious! We also had the new experience of trying a sparkling
red wine. The best thing was, all the wine was free! After this we weaved our way back to the campervan, and finally had our last anti-malarial tablet! At last!
This morning we arrived in Adelaide and have had a walk around the city, of which the Central Market is particularly excellent for food. We also stopped in at the South Australian Museum. Adelaide seems to be a nice city with a relaxed and
Valley of the Winds
Kata-Tjuta (The Olgas) cultured atmosphere, a lovely place to live.
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Cashy
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Sunset
Yay - a sunset photo - was it specially for me?? ;-)