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Published: April 1st 2007
Both at Uluru
The classic photo + us. Well this sure isn’t Kansas people. Welcome to the land of Oz and we’ve already had quite an adventure and so this’ll be quite a long entry. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin. We had a bit of a stress landing as we had to collect our bags at Sydney airport, get through customs and then re-check in to Alice Springs. We had to do some queue jumping but we made it and had breakfast at Hungry Jacks which is the name for burger king here (I think and I’ve no idea why it’s different). Anyway we got to Alice Springs and were picked up to go to our hostel. You notice the heat straight away (around 30 degrees C) though it’s not uncomfortable. We had only one day in Alice Springs so we had a quick wander round and visited the reptile centre where you get to watch and hold various lizards/snakes from Oz, some of which can kill you (you don’t get to hold them ones). I thought the python was really friendly so who knows, I may get one when we get back! The following morning we visited the baby kangaroo rescue centre. This is
Deb, Reptile Centre, Alice Springs
Deb making friends on our first day in Oz. a place where they bring up baby kangaroos. The babies (called joeys) are found in their mother’s pouch still alive after the mother has been knocked down by a car or roadtrain. I f the Joey is 3 months old or older then they can be brought up in care. They’re kept in cotton bags and held to mimic their mothers pouch. People bring them up as a hobby, where one person acts as the mother feeding the Joey. Apparently some people even take them to work (though I’m not sure if the guy was taking the mick at that point). As they get older they want to hop about more so they are kept in the garden and are released back into the wild at about 13 months. At the rescue centre you each hold one for a good 15 minutes to make you think more than just the photo opportunity. The guy who runs the place was pretty passionate about them and encouragers people to stop and check on the road if you see a dead kangaroo to look if there is a Joey in the pouch.
At 1pm we were picked up for our tour which
Mike and Python
I've got a big snake and I'm not afraid to use it. would take us from Alice Springs all the way down to Adelaide via Uluru (Ayers Rock) in 6 days. It was quite a small bus with a trailer and after all pickups we were full, 21 passengers and our guide Mark from Adelaide. Again there were lots of different nationalities, British, Irish, Dutch, Canadian, French Canadian, Korean, Swiss, German, Austrian and a Brazilian. Our first day was mostly spent on the road, only 6 hours though. On the way we decided to pick up a couple of fly nets as there were lots around and we didn’t want to swallow any. We stopped at Kings Creek Station for the night where amazingly in the middle of the desert it started to rain, heavily. We all huddled under shelter and ate burritos whilst getting to know others in the group. The rain still didn’t let up which ruined any ideas of sleeping under the stars in our swags (a canvas bag with a mattress in it, not really shelter, just another layer between you and the outside). That night, because of the weather we slept in the bus (7 of us) and the rest slept in our kitchen/shelter. Not the best
Baby Kangaroo Rescue Centre, Alice Springs
Debbie's got a baby! Just a kangaroo mind. of nights sleep but we were dry. It was still wet and raining the next day when we left to do a hike in King’s Canyon. Me and Debbie had fished out our waterproofs which were the last things we thought we’d need here. It was pretty unique at the canyon as we got to see waterfalls somewhere where it’s normally around 40 degrees C. We were supposed to do a loop walk with a swim in the watering hole but we had to turn round as the rain was too heavy and Mark was worried about the roads flooding. So we went down the way we came up only to find we were trapped as the rain had brought about a flooded creek with fast moving water. Other groups were trapped with us including some German school children. One of the coach drivers on the other side of the creek who had a heavy duty coach got their coach after about 30 minutes and drove across it. Amazingly he only took across his own group, not even the school children! So we waited for the rangers who were happy to wait for the rain to stop and the water
King's Canyon
In the middle of the desert... WET. to slow down. The problem was it wasn’t stopping. Eventually we got sick of waiting and being told nothing (it must’ve been a couple of hours) so some people decided to chance it and walk across slowly. After being told it wasn’t too bad by the people who crossed (though told to stay put by the ranger) our group made a human chain and walked across. Then some of us went back in to form the chain to act as support for others to cross. At first the school children were still being told to stay where they were but eventually the rangers were convinced so we stayed in the water whilst the children walked across. Most people didn’t have waterproofs and some of the children were blue so it was a good job they got across. Once everyone was over it was a case of getting back to the bus to warm up as we were stuck where we were as some roads were flooded up to 1.5 M. We had to wait a few hours for the water to recede as our bus could only cope with 0.4 M of water. A family from Western Australia who were
Kings Canyon waterfall
A rare waterfall in the desert (normally it's 45 degrees and there is NO water) camping were kind enough to take us in groups of 5 (the number of cups they had) and make us tea/coffee to help warm up. This was quite a contrast to the idiot of a coach driver that left everyone stranded. The water finally dropped and we then had to get back to camp to pack up. On the way there though there were many more parts of the road that were flooded with road washed away and debris hidden in the water. At each flooded area, Mark would get out, have a wade through the water, think about it, find a good song to put on full blast and we’d go for it. It was quite the adventure but we were happy to get back to the camp ground. We were really pushed for time as we had a 3 hour drive to do before dark and it was already 4pm (we had set off to King’s Canyon at 8am that morning). We split into two groups, one to pack everything away and one to make our very late lunch. As it was raining the swags had to be packed in the bus with us so it was very
Human chain at King's Canyon
The flooded creek we had to cross. snug. The drive to Yulara was less eventful (which was good) though it was still raining. We finally got to our campsite to find another group was using our shelter! They’d had bad luck coming from Adelaide and were a day late. We were sent to some other shelter miles from anything with no power and none of us or Mark was happy so we went back to the other one and shared it. It was BBQ for tea/supper which was really nice. We slept under any shelter we could find (including the laundry room, the bus and other campsite shelters that had spare space).
Finally the next day it was dry! After breakfast we drove to Uluru to do a couple of small walks with Mark and then to do a base walk on our own. The rock is really impressive, there are so many features to look at, some of which are sacred to the Aborigines so no photos are allowed (a AU$50,000 fine if caught). It’s very easy to stare at Uluru for hours but we were also to visit the aborigine cultural centre and to fit in Kata Tjuta (meaning many heads) also known as
Mike in swag bag
These were our beds/shelters for 2 nights the Olgas. These are less known than Uluru but are just as impressive. We did a short walk to a gorge before going for sunset viewing of both Uluru and Kata Tjuta where we took lots of photos. It was Chinese style BBQ chicken and veggies for tea with lots of people mucking in to help. That evening (like most others) we all talked and exchanged travel stories/advice. Even though we’d not been together long we’d all been brought together by the circumstances. We woke up for dawn viewing of Uluru, personally this was an anti-climax as sunset is much better and less effort! At 8.30am we set off for Coober Pedy, a long drive as we’d not be there until 6.30pm. It was a long drive but it went quickly as we played games and listened to MP3 players connected to the bus (me with my brick one). Debbie’s 80’s movies soundtrack went down well as people were trying to work out which film each song was from.
Coober Pedy is a weird place as 70% of the population live underground in house carved out of the sandstone. It’s the opal capital of the world. They’ve also shot
Groovy Grape Group at Uluru
We're all laughing as there were Japanese tourists taking pictures of us whilst we were having our photo took! a few films there including Pricilla Queen of the Desert and Pitch Black (Vin Diesel, Sci-Fi). Half of the spaceship from the film has been left there; needless to say I wanted a photograph of it. After a long day we all went to the pizza parlour for dinner and then we went for a stargazing tour. We saw the Southern Cross and the constellations are all upside down (not that we’d recognize many). We also got a really clear view of Saturn including it’s rings with the help of a telescope. That night we slept underground in bunks which seemed like a 5 star hotel after 3 nights camping. The following day we had a tour of the town by an enthusiastic local called Gina who was very proud of everything in the town including having a lawn for people to play on. This is a place where it can be up to 56 degrees C in the summer so grass is pretty rare. We also visited the Opal museum, an underground house and some old mines. Some people have huge amounts of rooms in their houses as an extension simply means more tunneling. Also mining for Opals in
Deb near Uluru
At the base of the rock. the town is illegal but if any are found while “extending” your house are yours to keep. We then bought some Opals (small ones as traveling for 6 months isn’t cheap). We then were back onto the bus to head for Quorn. There we had our final evening meal together which Mark called “Skippy Bolognese”. For those who can’t guess this is kangaroo. It was nice although it was mined and in sauce so it’s hard to pick out the kangaroo flavour. Our last day we were took to the Flinders ranges to walk/climb Devil’s Peak. It wasn’t too hard going and the views at the top were pretty impressive. After the walk we were back on the bus for the final stretch of the tour to Adelaide. We stopped briefly at a salt lake where a few kilometers away the Oz army try out weapons. There was even a warning about “lasers”. It was quite sad to leave the tour, even now a few days later it seems strange not seeing the familiar faces. Hopefully we’ll meet up with some of them again on our travels as we exchanged email addresses. Anyway for those of you still awake, good
Mike at Uluru
I could hear Van Halen so I thought, might as well... night and good luck.
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Chris
non-member comment
Great start to Oz!
You two certainly know how to have an adventure! What a great start to your travels in Oz, glad I didn't know anything about it until you were safe. How ever difficult the situation, you still manage to give food details!! Fantastic photos as usual - keep up the good work. Look forward to reading the next instalment. Love Chris x