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From Cairns we made the long mission to Alice Springs! Unfortunately we had been decieved by the Greyhound in thinking that we could get the Ghan train part the way so we were forced into a coach trip totalling 32 hours! I dreaded this from the day we booked it, I had a few memories coming back to me of the trip I made with my aunt, uncle, cousins and dad to Spain. I hate coaches at the best of times so a 32 hour trip seemed like a nightmare!
We said our goodbyes to Becky and made the 6 hour trip back to Townsville. We stayed in Townsville over night then at 7.30am got on the coach to Alice Springs arriving at 9.30am the next day! Overall it wasnt as bad as I thought it would be! We got a seat to ourselves and unlike the coaches at home it wasnt packed with screaming children or people eating a picnic for the entire journey. You get to see some nice views aswell, land as far as the eye can see with nothing much in between! You do get a bit tired of these views but when the sun
sets its amazing!
When we arrived in Alice Springs we headed for our hostel dropped our stuff and amazingly managed to head into Alice to see what was happening! There were a lot more aboriginals than I had seen around the rest of Australia which was interesting to see. We found a spot to get a free digeridoo lesson which was quite fun! I can only say that I can make a few sounds but despite being tempted I haven't sent one home!
The following day we went on our 3 day tour around the Red Centre, taking in the delights of Uluru (Ayres Rock) Kings Canyon and Kata Tjuta. I think the pictures show it better than I can describe and you can get our itinerary and some photos from http://www.therocktour.com.au/ (Our trip was on the 15th May). I'll put a bit about my thoughts on the trip anyway though! On day one we went to Kings Canyon and surprisingly it takes 5 hours to get there! Unfortunately after this 5 hour trip we had to make a climb up the face of the canyon (you can walk it by the way, I'm not a rock climber
I'm afraid!). If you take into the fact that it's also called 'Heart Attack Hill' you can imagine that it was a bit of a climb. From the top we walked around the Canyon, took in the history being told to us and had a dip in the Garden of Eden. It was a 3 hour walk and the views were pretty amazing! That night we set up camp which was literally in the outback, sitting round a fire and sleeping in swags. A swag is essentially a a tent fabric that zips around your sleeping bag with a flap that you can have over your face. It is the most comfortable thing I've camped in!! I did get a bit freaked out when I woke up in the middle of the night and it was absolutely silent and I was just looking up at the stars. It was a cool view but a bit eery.
On the second day we went to Kata Tjuta and got our first glimpses of the big red rock! Kata Tjuta was probably my favourite stop on the tour, I think its because I hadnt really heard of it so I didnt have
Camels on the Roadside
Apparently these are some of the only wild camels in the world! most of them are owned by someone. any expectations and it was amazing! Really pretty views! Just nothing I've ever seen before and we got to learn a fair bit of Aboriginal Tales which was really interesting. During the afternoon we had our first proper views of Uluru which was quite surreal, it was a bit like seeing Sydney Harbour for the first time. That evening we took a short walk around Uluru and saw it at sunset, this was also an amazing view (I'm wondering if I've said this for a lot of things at the moment)! The rock itself wasn't as big as I was expecting, I think that might have been because at our last site the rocks were huge! It was quite amusing when we turned up for the sunset in our rather small bus, where we ate sitting on our rolled up swags next to the massive buses of tourists eating fancy buffets with silver serving equipment! I think I preferred our way though, roughing it in the outback is how its meant to be really. I do have to admit quite hypocritically I can't say I enjoyed the lack of toilets and showers though!
On our final day we did
a summit walk around Uluru, this was about 6 miles I think and it was cool to see the rock from so many angles. Unfortunately it was sooo cold and windy that I had to borrow a hat and we practically ran around the rock. On the way home, we made another long journey then stopped at the Camel Farm! We got to ride a camel for about 5 minutes for only $5!! It was probably the best $5 I've spent so far, it was so funny!
The tour overall was really good! Our tour guide was quite young and pretty cool, made some good food and told us quite a lot about aboriginal culture! If you get to the outback anytime in the future I'd suggest this tour!
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