Blogs from Kata Tjuta, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 4

5 am start today we drove for about 45 mins then stopped and we could see the Olgas and Kings Canyon we then watched the sun rise before getting into the bus and driving to the Olgas and the valley of winds. We arrived there at 11am and did a walk where we were told about bush tucker food. On the way back we saw wallabies layed in the shade of the rocks. We were told some of the aboriginal meanings for the rock formations. We left the Olgas and drove another 2 hours to the Voyagers resort where we set up camp again here is a full resort with a five star hotel, dorms and camp site we used the camp site. We then had lunch and a swim. After this we set of to ... read more

About 50km from Yulara lies the weathered remains of what may once have been a monolith 10 times the size of Uluru. 36 huge, rounded lumps of rock squat on the plain, their dome-like appearance giving rise to their Aboriginal name Kata Tjuta, or "many heads". As usual, there's a European name - the tallest of the heads was christened Mt Olga, with the collection as a whole called the Olgas. Their physical appearance is quite distinct from Uluru, with none of the fine detail apparent on some of Uluru's faces. Despite the abundance of valleys and chasms, there were few walking trails. I attempted the main one at the Valley of the Winds, which I can only assume was a mistranslation of Valley of the Flies from the local language, as flies exceeded winds by ... read more

The Valley of the Winds hike was amazing. Right through Kata Tjuta. The rocks felt so powerful, towering over you making you feel very small. And Nigel, I was wearing my hiking boots, I sensed a comment about them from you! I do in fact wear them alot of the time, very comfortable... After our hike and lunch it was a long drive ahead of us (again), aiming to camp around 50kms away from Kings Canyon so we could spend alot of time there the next day. Well, that was the plan, until everything changed in a matter of short moments. I was sitting right behind the front passengers in our 4WD, chatting away like normal with a view straight out the windscreen of reams of nothingness in the distance. This time however I got a ... read more

Hey everyone, thanks so much for all your little messages- they are so cute and its great to hear from you all (especially gran- when did you get internet connection?!!!!) Anyway, flew out from Cairns after a night back at Tropic Days sharing a room with the bronzed torso of Australian Footie soon-to-be celebrity Luke. (slept distractedly...) The landscape of Australia is just weird, rainforest, then miles of uninhabited desert, then massive white salt lakes, and then great big rock formations sticking up out of no where. When we landed everything was orange and green- everything! (including the sky) (not) (obviously). The resort was nice in a posh sanitised sort of way. At 4om when out on a tour- was expecting a huge bus and a bloke trying to be funny up the front but actually ... read more

Alarms were set for 4:15am, and we struggled to awaken. I had a quick shower, and then it was time to go. After last night’s escapade we were now going to see the Uluru sunrise. We all met in the usual place, and made our way there. It was only about a ten-minute drive there. Once we had arrived there were again many coaches, but we had the chance to see the change in colour once more. The difference in half-an-hour was unbelievable. We were only here for a short while, as the sunrise is over with much quicker than a sunset. We went back to the resort, had some breakfast, and had until midday to do what we wanted. However, most of my morning would be taken up by my optional helicopter flight. This was ... read more