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Published: December 19th 2008
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Entry by Rich
Monday 15/12/08
Our adventure in the 'red centre' of Australia started early (very early) on Monday morning. Early starts are a big feature of this trip and we were up at 5 a.m ready to be picked up outside our hotel at 5.45. Our Australian tour guide, Mark, was pleased that we had a relatively small bag between us as space on the tour bus is at a premium. Being amongst the first onto the bus also allowed us to get some good seats too! We met Louise who is from Sunderland but has been working in Australia for the last few months. There were many other nationalities represented in our tour group - Dutch, Swiss, Irish, Portugese, Danish and German. There was also a good age range with a couple of young families amongst the group. In total, the group was 25 people and there was plenty of opportunity to get to know people on the long journeys between the locations.
Our first stop on the Stuart Highway out of Alice Springs was at the Camel Farm some 80 kilometres into the journey. Camels, kangaroos, dingos and emus are all kept here and camel
rides are the big tourist attraction. Jules and Louise were brave enough to take a camel ride and both enjoyed it. The camel didn't look too happy; in fact he seemed to have the hump (sorry).
About an hour later we had an exciting moment when the bus took one of only two turns required throughout the 6 and a half hour trip to Uluru. Shortly after this turn on to the Lasseter Highway (not named after the hotel complex in Neighbours) our second stop was at Mount Ebenezer Road House which has a small Aboriginal art gallery along with a cafe. We enjoyed our first ever Lamington here - a Lamington being a small jam sponge cake covered in chocolate and coconut (the recipe was originally created in order to make the stale sponge more appetising). Delicious!
Our final stop was an important one - Curtin Springs is the last place to purchase beer before the National Park so we took the opportunity to stock up on Tooheys New. I didn't notice any springs at Curtin Springs but then I didn't notice any curtains either.
Our journey between Alice Springs and the Uluru national park took
us through just three cattle farms - these are absoluetly huge with the largest one of the three being 9000 square kilometres. This however is a fraction of the size of the largest one in Australia; at 44000 square kilometres it is as big as Belgium. It is also more interesting despite being largely made up of red dust and grass.
We arrived at our campsite and were given a reminder as to how far into the desert we were when a large lizard scuttled out of our kitchen block and across the sand. After selecting a tent and dropping off our bags we headed into the National Park.
For many years the vast area around Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) and its less famous neighbour Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) was taken from the Aborigines and they were forbidden to enter. The region was preserved solely for the white inhabitants of Australia and classified as an area of great natural beauty. However the last twenty years have seen a gradual return to the original owners of the land - the Anangu ('we together') - Whilst respect for and understanding of the Aborigines has undoubtedly been part of
the reason for this, fire management also played a part. Traditional methods of burning patches of grass in order to create fire breaks had been used by the Aborigines for hundreds of years. Without these, the growth of trees and grass continued in the area for many years until huge fires in the 1950's and 1970's destroyed as much as 75% of the park. Traditional methods are now followed again to protect the area.
The term the Anangu evolved from the petitioning of several tribes for the return of the land. Rather than each tribe petitioning separately they joined together and were eventually successful in 1985.
We spent the afternoon walking around Kata Tjuta, a collection of domes and mountains about 50 kilometres from Uluru. Along with visits to two lookout points we also walked through the Valley of the Winds which runs between two of the huge domes. There had been significant rain in the preceding weeks so there was alot of vegetation growing around and on the rock faces. Fortunately, for the duration of our trip we had clear blue skies and temperatures ranging from the low 30's up to the low 40's.
After a
fantastic walk we drove over to Uluru to view the sunset. On the way, Mark pulled over to the side of the road quite abruptly. We wondered if he there was a problem with the bus as he dashed out of the cab. Incredibly however, he had spotted an amazing creature as we drove past. He reached down to the sand and returned to the bus with a baby Thorny Devil - a type of lizard which lives here. This was a real bonus as they are quite rare and are truly unique. We all had an opportunity to take a photo before the lizard was returned to safety.
We joined the many other bus and coach parties viewing the Uluru sunset and despite the large group of people, it was a peaceful scene. As the shadows lengthened across the desert and reached the base of Uluru, the rock turned an intense red colour and the skies transformed into an array of blues, reds and purples. It was a sight well worth the many hours of travel and we were given a perfect image which will live long in the memory.
The day had already been the best
of the trip so far but more was to come. After a barbecue at the camp site and a few beers, we headed up away from the camp and into the darkness to a lookout point. The sky was filled with millions of stars - the most I have ever seen. We lay on our backs looking up to the sky. The milky way was clearly visible and as our eyes became more accustomed to the light the eerie silhouette of Uluru was too. As I stared out at it, a shooting star passed over the rock. Things don't get too much better than this!
We knew an early start was on the cards again so we were in our tent by 10.30. I switched on my torch and was about to climb into my sleeping bag when I noticed an intruder in the tent. One thing you don't want to see in your tent in the outback is a large spider but the huge glassy eyes looking back at me belonged to a large grey arachnid. Had I seen this spider in England I would have been on the phone to the police reporting a dangerous creature escaped
from the zoo but in true outback style we swept him up in a dustpan and put him out on the sand where he scuttled in the direction of our neighbour's tent.
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