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Published: April 26th 2007
Eight days, 2500km, Adelide to Alice Springs on a guided tour, you would expect this to be a long one. Lot's of nice pics, too.
Day one:
Big group, eccentric guide, lousy cold lunch but nice fish and chips for dinner. In the evening our group turned out to be quite pleasant, and heavy with Swiss and German. Interesting. Also, some beer appeared in the evening. Europeans drink a lot.
Camped under the stars. Cool.
Day two:
Walked some today in Wilpena pound. Very arid, reminded me of home. Burgers for lunch and BBQ for dinner. The Australian have gas BBQs like every park and campsite, a good idea to import. The beer started at lunch and pretty much stayed till we went to sleep (everybody bought beer when we stopped on the way). Not keeping up.
Day three:
Much driving on dirt roads (>300km). Very flat and very very empty toward the end. Only salt lakes and endless planes. Oh, and about 3 zillion flies. Still, pub and beer in the evening in William's Creek, population 7, right in the middle of nowhere. Had only one, even the Korean guy had more. Rumors of partial and
Small lizard
Flinders Rangescomplete nudity after I went to bed. Group might be getting too party-flavored to my test.
Day four:
Scenic flight in the morning (not part of the tour), view so flat and vast. Passed above a cattle ranch about the size of Belgium. In the afternoon had much needed alone time around Coober Pedy, small miner town, famous for its Opal. The town itself looks like a crossbreed between a junk-yard and a Bedouin settlement. Still, the underground homes and shops are cool (literary). And so, tonight the pub was underground.
Day five:
Drove more than 700km with minimal stops (one for beer supplies, of course) to see a great big red rock in the very dim light of a completely obscured by clouds setting sun. A bit of a forced anti-climax, actually.
Day six:
Due to clouds, sunrise uninspiring as the previous sunset. Also, due to strong winds, the path up the Ayers rock was closed. Turns out the whole place is sacred to the aboriginal, so they ASK not to go up even when the weather fine. I guess the reason of not abolishing it completely is somehow related to tourist money, very evident in
the nearby resort, with luxury hotels and expensive shops. We, on the other hand, camped. A very pleasant experience as there was a swimming pool, BBQ and a great lookout with wonderful sunset (the clouds finally decided to have a break) on the grounds. Slept again in the open, finally some stars!
Day seven:
Success with sunrise on the rock, finally. It really lights up nicely, all red and stuff. The hike we did among a bunch of smaller and dome shaped red rocks (aka the Olgas) was very impressive, but doing it with a large group is quite annoying. Last campsite in the evening, beer bought beforehand. I'm staying dry. Last night under the stars. Damn clouds.
Day eight:
Woke up again before sunrise, the clouds lifted - amazing stars. Worth the entire trip. Very nice canyon walk this morning, with a bonus of a swimming hole right in the middle. Having said that, group walking even more annoying. Finally, short drive (~500km) to Alice's springs. Farewell to the group in dinner. Terrible food, crappy place, sticky atmosphere. Went back to nice hostel early.
Conclusion:
The outback is really something to experience. People living out there
are weird. Tour guides driving 2500km in 8 days with no more then a few days rest between are even weirder. Very strong personality, a lot of self confidence mixed with a 'don't care' attitude.
People going on tours are weird too. They go on an outdoor tour but enjoy mainly the party time in the evening, the beer, stupid games and so on. To their defence, the tour itself is very party oriented. And everything is so lovely, so exciting, so much fun to them. Like they have decided to enjoy it at all cost. Or maybe it's just me. I just don't get it.
Anyway, 8 days are definitely too much to spend with them. Glad I went, was very interesting, would not recommend it to my friends.
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