Advertisement
Published: September 3rd 2005
Edit Blog Post
we got woken up just before sunrise - it was still totally dark, the stars were still out and all my clothes that i'd put on the end of my swag to dry overnight were totally soaking, dammit! upside - the campfire was still going so i managed to dry them out 😊
after cooking toast on the campfire (sooo much quicker than a toaster!!) we headed back up to the viewing point near camp to watch sunrise. and i thought that sunset was good!!!! before the sun came up, uluru was dark, almost grey and surround by mist. then, as the sun gradually hit the rock it changed and became more and more red, surrounded by the most picturesque pinky purple sky. kodak moment for sure 😊
it was a lot lot warmer and sunnier than the day before so we drove up to uluru again and took our cliche red rock, blue skies pictures 😊 then it was off to kata tjuta (the olgas), a group of rocks about 30km from uluru (you can see uluru from kata tjuta, and vice versa, they're that big). if uluru was amazing, then there simply is no words to describe
what the olgas are. i can't for the life of me understand why they aren't as well known as uluru - the views on the walk through them (another 8km, eep!!) are beyond breathtaking. it reminded me of jurassic park 😊 we saw all sorts of lizards and crawly things as we were going round and phil was really good, telling us what that all were (obviously can't remember them now!!). he also showed us various aboriginal medicines, real eucalyptus, some thorny bush that the aboriginies used for acupuncture. (i actually used the thorny bush to get my splinter out, and then the eucalyptus as an antiseptic 😊)
there is a plant called the desert fuschia which is actually considered bush tucker - you pull the flower off the bush and then drink the nectar out of it. we all tried some, and it was so so good!! really sweet and totally yummy!
once we'd done the walk (it took about 3 hours i'd say...) we stopped for lunch and then set off along a proper outback dirt road - i guess that's where the 4WD really came in handy!!! twas a bumpy ride, to say the least!!
i got to sit up front, to aleviate possible travel sickness 😊 but it was worth every single moment, we got to see the outback as its meant to be seen, in all its red, barren glory, complete with oodles and oodles of camels, horses, cows and, yes, at last loads and loads of KANGAROOS!! now that's the australia i was thinking about! all very exciting, i'm sure you'll agree! they really are the most brilliant animals! they kinda bounce to (what they consider) a safe distance, then just sit there on their back legs staring at you. easy targets really, poor clueless things! got some cool photos - yay for new camera with super zoom!!
slightly mean in my humble opinion - phil used the 4WD to round up the camels into a big herd (or whatever you call a group of camels...) - the poor things looked quite disgruntled! 😞
oooh, another interesting ozzie factiod - there are about 27 million kangaroos in australia. considering there are only about 20 million people, tis quite a lot of 'roos!
our camp for the second night was at a place called King's Creek, properly in the middle of
kata tjuta (the olgas)
the most beautiful view nowhere. again, swags were used and because we were totally out in the sticks this time we could see even more stars (after the first night, i really wouldn't have thought that possible). ahhhhh, and the best part about this camp - the toilet and the shower...
why? they were totally open to the elements! they had walls on three sides but no door! so it was just open and you could see the stars! totally no privacy, but when you're the only group of people in absolutely miles, i don't think that really matters! we all took it in turns to have a proper bush shower - claire was my "torch buddy", she held the torch from behind the shower wall while i showered. best shower ever! totally amazing experience having a shower, in the middle of the australian outback gazing up at all the millions upon millions of stars. i could have stayed there all night. that and it was nice to have a shower and actually feel clean after all that oh so strenuous walking!!
and that was my second day of camping in the middle of oz!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.104s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0456s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb