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Published: September 5th 2007
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Me and Uluru
Sunset viewing area - the exact image from my travel book with me included! Hello everyone! Well it's been 3 months since I left home and I am updating my blog from somewhere I never expected to be after having a day out that I wasn't expecting to do! I am in Alice Springs, Northern Territory and I have been here since last Thursday and leave for Perth (Western Australia) this Saturday. Before I left home I had no plans or desire to visit the outback whatsoever but since travelling I have got the travelbug and want to see the whole country and I am thoroughly enjoying doing just that. I must say Alice Springs has been one of my favourite places yet (I have quite a few favourites though! :p)
Going back to my last entry, Louise and I went to the Mindil Night markets, listened to some great aboriginal music, browsed around lots of crafty little stores and then got chinese from the food market and sat on Mindil Beach with a few of Louise's new mates from her tour and watched the sunset - lovely! After that we went and listened to the last night of the Darwin festival and wandered around a little art gallery set up in the park
with lanterns and paintings pinned to trees - very magical atmosphere. Louise and I decided to take The Ghan (famous train that crossed the outback) to Alice Springs. Louise wasn't feeling well so I sunbathed a little and pottered about the hostel. Sod's Law that as soon as I booked a ticket out of the antisocial hostel people started to chat to me when I was around and about. I ended up playing cards with two lads from Bournemouth for 5 hours after tea!
On the Wednesday Louise and I were packed and boarded The Ghan. We were in Red Kangaroo class which is the equivalent of economy. We had lots of leg room, a buffet carriage and a lounge which we could wander in to. We passed over the Yellow Water River and saw other wildlife before stopping at Katherine, 4 1/2 hours later. Katherine was actually named after a Catherine with a C but they spelt it wrong - typical eh! The train stopped here for 5 hours which allowed me to go on a boat cruise to a couple of Katherine's many famous gorges in Nitmiluk National Park - home of the Narwin aboriginal people.
The journey was 23 hours in total (including stop off at Katherine) so slept and arrived in Alice Springs at 9.10am. We were welcomed off the train by the Alice Spring's town cryer and then went to our hostel. Our hostel is lovely and homely, we spent our first few nights in a metal dooner in the garden. The hostel has hammocks and the friendly owners gave poi lessons (Anna taught me a few moves before I left UK but I still managed to hit myself in the face twice and stopped when my lip started to bleed! It is basically two tennis balls on string which you spin around and do tricks with). The first night we went out with Gemma, an irish girl from The Ghan and a group of her new irish pals from her hostel. After grabbing food from the night market we went to Bojangles saloon bar where they have a live webcam cast from inside the bar so I was waving to my Dad from there. (I will be back again Friday night, the web address is http://www.bossaloon.com.au - if I go there at 9pm Northern Territory time then it will be 12 noon
About to board The Ghan!
Darwin to Alice Springs via Katherine UK time, if you see me send me a text and I'll wave to you!). The bar was funny with taps that turned on the wrong sinks in the toliets and door handles on the wrong side of all the doors!
Spent a few days exploring Alice Springs. The Todd River 'runs' through Alice, well I say run but it is completely dry all year around! Alice isn't at all scary or back in time as I was expecting. I find it more modernised than Darwin and a lot more peaceful and friendly. On the Saturday I went to the Baby Kangaroo Rescue Centre which I had been excited about since arriving in Alice. They go out and look in the pouches of the many kangaroos who get knocked down on the roads and rescue numerous joeys who survive the collision. They raise them in threes so they can go back to the wild aged one. Whilst young they need to be held tightly as they would be in a pouch so my job was to cuddle 5 1/2 month old Abigail for a minimum of 15 minutes - it was more like 30! You cuddle them in their
The Ghan!
There must have been about 20 carriages minimum - it was huge! pillow case pouch. Abigail had the hiccups which was the cutest thing ever. She also had ears almost bigger than her head! Louise wasn't allowed in as she was full of cold so I'm going back with her on Friday!
The next day we went to The Royal Flying Doctor's Alice Springs Control Base which was sounds more exciting than it actually was as the control room doesn't operate on a Sunday.
Now we get to Yesterday! Yesterday I went on a coach trip to the Red Centre which was amazing! I got picked up at 6am by a bus full of grannies and travelled the 6 hour drive to Uluru (Ayers Rock). We drove through numerous cattle ranches and bush fire areas all covered with red sand which really felt like the real Australia again. After a couple of hours the driver pointed out Mount Connor which is nicknamed "Fool-u-ru" as many tourists travel towards Uluru and stop here as it looks similar (it's actually even bigger!) and then take photos, walk around and leave without visiting actual Uluru. Our next stop was Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) where we went on a short rocky walk to the
viewing platform. By this point I had started chatting to the other young person on the coach and we became photo buddies. We were told numerous aboriginal tales about the 36 massive domes including one where they say that they are the heads of warriors who were buried in the sand with their heads sticking out as punishment for stealing another tribes women and children. The rocks are massive and the photos can't do them justice.
After a trip to the aboriginal cultural centre we spotted a wild camel wandering along the grass. Apparently once they hit puberty male camels have to wander alone until they can steal a harem of female camels from another male so this was a huge example of one of them. After this Uluru came into view and I got a photo which looks exactly the same as the one on my travel book! It is absolutely massive, even larger than I expected. It is 9.4 km in circumference and approx 350 metres high. It was shut for climbing due to high winds but I wouldn't have attempted it firstly due to it being a sacred aboriginal site where they ask you not to
climb and secondly because it is soo steep it's almost vertical at points. 35 people have died attempting to climb it. We walked around part of the base and saw caves, boulders and structures that could become waterfalls if enough water was to fall. It was amazing as I thought of it as one solid rock. We saw aboriginal rock art and food stores. We drove a little further around with our guide telling us the aboriginal tales behind every crack, mark and discolouration. We stopped to look at a thorny devil (a non poisonous prickly lizard) then walked further around the rock to a water hole.
We ended our day at sunset point where we had a fantastic panaramic view of the rock and enjoying a barbeque and a glass of bucks fizz as we watched the sunset and the rock change colour from bright red to dark red. Slept for the 6 hour drive home after an amazing day! I have posted a lot of photos but have a lot more to show on my return!
I'm off for a free didgeridoo lesson now, then the joey rescue centre again on Friday before jetting off to
Alice Springs!
We arrive at our destination! Western Australia. Leave me a comment if you're still reading! I may virtually 'see' some of you in Bojangles on Friday!!
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Jan
non-member comment
Hey there
Hi Catherine, still reading and enjoying your amazing travelblog! It sounds like you are having the time of your life. Im glad you decided to explore the outback a bit and saw Uluru, it would definately be on my list of things to see. That lovely lantern lit art display sounds beautiful, too, I was in Cornwall a few weeks ago and saw a similar thing in St Ives (not as exotic as where you are, though!!) Im not going to be around on Friday but I hope you have a nice time waving to everyone on webcam! Take care and keep having fun Jan xxx