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Published: June 23rd 2008
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(Catherine)
As we were heading towards Cairns airport for our flight to Alice Springs, we got chatting to our taxi driver - a friendly Aussie close to retirement. When we told him where we were off to he told us he didn't think much of Alice Springs describing it as "just a town in the middle of the desert!". He was equally unimpressed with Uluru (Ayer's Rock) which apparently was "just a bloody big rock!". As seeing this "bloody big rock" was our main reason for heading to the Red Centre, I really hoped we wouldn't share his opinion!
Arriving in Alice (as the locals call it) was a strange experience. From the air you get a real sense of how remote a place it is - all you can see is the surrounding vast red desert. In fact, it had been about two hours since we'd last seen any sign of life. The town itself was eerily quiet as it was a Sunday and the next day was a public holiday for the Queen's birthday (can you believe Australians get a day off work and we don't - she isn't even their Queen!) so everything seemed to have
shut down for the long weekend. Luckily Bojangles (the best bar in town and indeed of our travels so far) was open, so we settled down to enjoy a drink or two and listen to the live band.
Our first full day in Alice coincided with one of the biggest events in the town's calendar - an off-road car and motorbike race through the desert. We couldn't pass up an opportunity like this so we were up early to catch the free shuttle bus to the finishing line of the Finke Desert Race. It seemed like the whole town had turned out to cheer the drivers along and the whole event had an amateur county-show-like feel to it. Soon after we arrived, the winning car crossed the finishing line, which was actually quite exciting! The last part of the winding 230 km track had a massive puddle of water in the middle of it so there was lots of mud-flying action when the vehicles reached this point. The race was great fun for about an hour, then it all started to get a bit samey - seen one muddy car and you've seen them all! Eventually we decided to
Rev Head!
Matt at the Finke Desert Race. head back into town and forgo the much-anticipated arrival of the motorbikes!
The best attraction in Alice Springs is apparently Desert Park so we hired bikes for a day and cycled out there. The park had lots of different avaries where you could see native bush birds and the location was amazing, but it didn't live up to its hype, especially because the kangaroo and emu enclosures were empty! We also visited the Botanic Gardens which were hysterical! Alice Springs hasn't had any heavy rain for about eight months so all of the plants looked like straw! Luckily it was free to get in and there was a really good sculpture exhibition in there so that made up for it a bit. After all that, we decided to give the town's other 'attractions' a miss!!
The highlight of our visit to the Red Centre was a three-day camping trip to Uluru. We booked it through our hostel ("the cheapest rock trip in town!") and set off in a rickety old van with 24 others. Our guide, Chris, was a real Crocodile Dundee character - he's worked as a snake catcher, has been bitten by a shark and once
had to kill an injured wild horse! Along the way to Uluru we visited King's Canyon, a huge canyon 260 metres high, and The Olgas, a spectacular collection of dome-shaped rocks. At night, we camped out in swags which are thin mattresses with a waterproof cocoon-like covering. Once you were inside your sleeping bag with your swag zipped it was lovely and cosy!
Catching our first glimpse of Uluru was really exciting. The surrounding area is very flat so you can see the it from quite a distance and it's a pretty impressive sight. It's possible to climb to the top but as Uluru is such a sacred site for the Anangu people who are custodians of the land, they request that you don't (Lonely Planet likens it to clambering over the altar in Notre Dame Cathedral). Because of this we decided not to climb, although half the people in our tour group didn't seem to mind offending the locals (some even climbed up without their t-shirts on!). Later that evening we watched the sunset over Uluru and we were up early the next day to catch sunrise. It was amazing how the rock changed colour in the different
lights - over two days we saw a varitey of purples, reds, oranges and browns.
Some of the history around Uluru is really interesting. There are sections of the rock that you aren't allowed to photograph because they are particularly sacred, including a place where Anangu women used to go to give birth (the men didn't know anything about how babies were made or born and it was a punishable offence if they accidentally found out!). There are also some Anangu cave paintings telling stories which have been passed down from generation to generation, marks on the rocks that are believed to have been made by fighting snakes and hollows that were once used as kitchens stained black from smoke.
Our Cairns taxi driver was certainly correct when he said Uluru was a bloody big rock! It's 3.6 km long, 348 metres high and it took us over two hours to walk around the base. However, after finding out more about it's history and cultural significance I'm pleased to say that I think there's a bit more to it than that!
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Annie
non-member comment
minor factual correction.
G'day. I agree that the holiday situation re the Queen's birthday is amusing but actually, she is our queen too! Technically she is the Australian Head of State (not the prime minister) represented by the Australian Governor General. This is the source of discomfort for some and the Republican movement wants to change that. Personally, I agree with the Republicans, but what the hell, a day off is a day off!