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Published: February 17th 2008
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It's my big trip to visit Uluru, Kings Canyon and Kata Tjuta. I'm a bit skeptical about Uluru at the moment. I know everyone says its amazing but in my head it's just a big rock! Right when we started to head out, I knew that this trip was not going to end up the way I wanted. One of the people had asked our tour guide how long it would take to get to Kings Canyon which was supposed to be our first stop. Then we found out that our schedule was changed. We had to pick up one last passenger from a resort near Ayers Rock which meant we were doing the Uluru sunset on the first day. I couldn't believe they didn't bother to tell us and we all probably would have thought we were going somewhere different!
Once we picked up the last person in our group, we headed to Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) for our first hike. The area was absolutely gorgeous!!! I was a bit worried about how strenuous this hike would be seeing as I'm not the most active person in the world. There were a few bits that were kind of steep
but otherwise, it was a few hours of nice walking. Although, I did have to watch where I was walking so that I didn't trip over a rock by accident ; P I was quite tired after all that walking and we all arrived at the bus just in time. Literally the moment we all got onto the bus, it started pissing rain!!! We were glad that we didn't get caught hiking outside in the storm but everyone was also thinking that we wouldn't get a good sunset at Uluru that evening. We all were glaring at the women at the front for whom the schedule had been altered. It was even worse when we found out that she had done the same tour four weeks earlier and it rained then too! She brought her bad luck with her! We still headed out to the sunset viewing area near Uluru just in case and it actually did stop raining for a bit. I got a few decent pictures but the sky was so grey. We didn't get a sunset at all, it just got dark and then we saw thunder in the distance. Woohoo! More rain coming our way! I
felt so bad for some of the people on my tour. They had brought their large backpacks and stored them in the trailer and not in the bus. The rain had gotten inside and all of their stuff was soaking wet : ( That also meant wet sleeping bags and swag for everyone! Awesome! Everyone was tired and hungry because we had to get to the campsite to eat dinner.
This is when a dissappointing day got worse. As our tour guide was cooking us some Thai curry for dinner, the rain started again. It started off as a light shower and then turned into a full blown rainstorm! We were all huddled under the little shelter at our site waiting for our dinner and all I could think was that we were under a metal roof during a lightning storm!!! I think everyone was getting wet becuase at that point the wind was blowing in the rain sideways and there were puddles forming on the ground. We ate our dinner really quickly, anything would have tasted good at that point really. The park ranger came by to make sure our group was doing ok in the rain. We
were supposed to be sleeping outside in some swag/sleeping bags but that was out of the question with the storm. I overheard them talking about sleeping in the laundry. In my delusional state, I actually hoped that it was the name of some hostel or hotel nearby. Nope. They meant an actual laundry room!!!! I know it doesn't rain in that area too often but shouldn't they have some sort of back-up plan?!?!? No one was impressed with the options of a)sleeping in the rain b)sleeping on the floor of a laundry room or c) sleeping on the bus. I chose the bus along with a few others. Another group from the same tour company were pissed at us though. Apparently, they had been promised the laundry first but they were still eating when we got there...HAHA!
It was still raining in the morning so no sunrise either : ( However, it did clear up for our walk around the base of Uluru. I was never planning on climbing it but I probably would have backed out after seeing the "trail" up. The walk was ok but I wasn't blown away or anything. It was another restless night because
I decided to sleep on the bus again. Unfortunately, this one couple slept in the two seats in front of me and they were both snoring!!! AHHHH! The man sounded like an engine and then when he stopped, his wife started to snore! I couldn't stand it and I had no earplugs with me : (
The final day in the Outback brought my group to Kings Canyon. I enjoyed this walk much more than Uluru. Although, half of the time I was just thinking about getting back to the hostel in Alice Springs so I could take a shower : ) This part of my trip didn't end up the way I expected. I have no desire to do it again though and Uluru is still just one big rock in the middle of nowhere.
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