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Published: November 12th 2006
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Sunset at Uluru
Very beautiful, something I will never forget! My first ever tour and boy was I scared when as we left, I was told it was camping in the Bush we were doing rather than sleeping in the comfort of dorms. With all the snakes/spiders/lizards and scorpions in this area of the world, my initial thought was wrong bus. Leaving Alice was a hard thing to do, after spending 6 glorious days trying to kill time doing sod all.
First night was a Kings Station which was maybe 5 hrs drive from Alice. A real campground but with modern amenities such as hot water showers and toliets. We had a nice meal, sat around the camp fire singing and turned in for the evening in our Swags, which are like big heavy duty sleeping bags, with a small matress thing inside on which you put your sleeping bag. In the desert it is cold during the night, so my purchase of a bag was a good one. Being literally 5 hrs from civilization, looking to sky, we could see a blanket of stars, and I even learnt a few constalations. The animals make very funny noises out here!
The next morning, up at 5am we travelled to
Me at Kings Canyon
My first Aussie corked hat, great with the bloody flies!! Kings Canyon. We had to be up at this time or it would get too hot to walk safely. This place is possibly one of the most amazingly beautiful places I have ever visited. We did a 7.5km hike (even me) all through the canyon (my friend Chris in flip flops, weirdo) and even swam in a natural pool of water in the Garden of Eden. Can't believe I got in the water, firstly it was cold, like really cold in there and secondly it was one of those pools which are just black when you look at them and in this area with water snakes galore it probably was a little silly. It was lovely of our guide Sandy to tell us that on our first night a Western Brown snake (2nd most deadly in Australia) was killed on the next camping plot over from our one. So thats reassuring right!!
In the evening we made our way to Ayers Rock (uluru), another 5 hr drive with a temperature in the sun of 51 degrees arriving just in time to set up our swags and head to the sunset over the rock. This was breathtaking, the colours so
Uluru
At Sunset deep orange, the sky amazing colours and even a rainbow over the rock aswell. Moocho beers later and it was back to the campsite to drink round the fire and head to bed again shitting myself of snakes but gazing the stars as I fell asleep.
The next morning we were up after a lie in 7am this time to start our 9km walk all around the rock. Some of our group were gonna climb it but after seeing how you get up there, I was please to see they banned climbing because the temperature was over 36 degrees. You literally pull yourself up a chain to the top, my picture shows only the first section of the climb out of 3. In the afternoon we were all round the pool with some free time. So hot that the cold water was a very welcome relief, great fun aswell. That night we watched the sunset over the Olgas this time. The Olgars are again a monolith (single rock) like Uluru but there are more of them and they are kinda boulder like. Again the colours were amazing and me being a sucker for sunsets had to put one on
this site for you guys to see.
Up this next morning at 5am for this time a 9.5km hike all around the Olgars. This was perhaps the hardest walk mainly because I was bloody tired from early mornings, late night parties and also because the direct sun at 40 degrees was on us all morning. I also stopped to fill my water bottle and forgot to put the lid on the bottle when i put it into my bag so I had a soaking bag dripping water on my legs for the next 5kms, oh yeah and no water to drink, nice! That afternoon we headed south towards Coober Pedy, on route we stopped and did a bush camp for the night, literally by the side of the Stuart Highway, again the stars were amazing but the snakes could seriously smell my fear out here in the middle of nowhere! Next morning we were up again at silly o'clock to continue on the way to Coober. On route we met a pretty cool bloke called Claus. A german guy who literally just walks around Australia with his Dog and 2 camels. He has now been doing this for 35
Sunset at the Olgas
Probably better than Uluru years and is a very famous German Aussie now.
Coober Pedy for those who dont know, shame on you, is the largest opal mining town in Australia. It is weird, really weird as 50% of the population of 20,000 live under ground in houses cut out in to the rock as it is cooler. The first thing we saw as we arrived was a naked Aboriginal bloke walking in the street trying to stab himself with a knife. Apparently they have a massive drinking problem as there is very little to do here. Not even a McDonalds! We toured a mine and a persons house and learnt all about the mining and opals, actually quite interesting really. Then again after dinner we drank in an underground bar and then back to the dorm to drink and play drinking games, fun night! This time thank god we said goodbye to the swags and the last night was in a huge underground dormitory, with sections for 4 people. Was lovely and cold and I slept like a baby, without a care in the world that I might wake with a snake crawling on me or worse in my sleeping bag with
Chain to the top of Uluru
No way in 40 degree heat or ever!! me. Again another long drive the next morning 12 hrs, poor Sandy, to Adelaide where I am please to say I am alive and well, no snake bites, no spider bites and no Dingo bites. The trip was amazing, I'd highly recommend it, people were so cool. Shout out to all those that made it a great trip!
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McSwiggan
Adrian McSwiggan
Looks cool
Looks like you had a ledge time, some of the photos are amazing! We miss you, wahhh, wahhh. Look forward to the next trip I have to do these things too big boy, see you later