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Published: August 1st 2009
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My quest to save travel money has meant my last 3 and a half months have been spent in a curious little resort town in the Northern Territory called Yulara (AKA Ayers Rock Resort). This is a place which owes its entire existence to the world's most famous monolith which is 348 metres high, 10 kilometres around its base and stands strikingly and imposingly smack bang in the middle of the red Central Australian desert. Uluru (Ayers Rock), along with Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), attract thousands upon thousands of tourists, providing jobs for penniless pommy backpackers like myself and Aussies who are either debt-ridden or saving to fund travels of their own. It was nice to spend a while no longer as a traveller but as a resident of Yulara, in a place which may contain more wierdos per capita than anywhere I've been before, but which also contained some of the best people I've met during my time in Australia- if you're reading this, you know who you are and its most likely I met you either at work or at Mexican fiesta night at the Res!
Arriving in the middle of the desert I didn't really know what
to expect, other than the kind of burning heat I've never properly experienced before. The summer may have pretty much ended by my late March arrival but the week's forecast showed temperatures ranging from 37 to 43 degrees celcius and, as I expected, it was bloody hot. Even the wind blowing through the windows of the ute on my way from the airport to my accomodation was roasting hot! I quickly fell into a work routine and as Sounds of Silence employees / slaves most of our shifts involved driving into the desert and setting up an outdoor restaurant in the blistering afternoon sun, ready for guests to arrive at about 5.30pm. The guests enjoy a sunset with champagne and canapes atop a massive sand dune overlooking the rock, before being led down to the dining area for dinner under the stars with as much kangaroo and crocodile as they can eat and as much wine and beer as they can drink. We then pile them onto a coach, pack up the truck in the dark and try and finish work as early as possible so we're left with more time to go and get smashed at the Res club
or the Outy, which were the best (and the only!) two watering holes to choose from.
Needless to say, working as a waiter / labourer / truck packer in the middle of the desert had its challenges, most notably pushing a 150kg champagne-packed esky through thick, red sand up to dunetop, wheeling a trolley full of firewood around in the afternoon heat, and preparing 85 dinner settings by myself only for us to have to pack it all away during a desert storm of biblical proportions whilst trying to persuade guests that they were safe in the thunder and lightning and that their coach would be along shortly. It was also no fun to greet guests while balancing a tray full of champagne flutes, while in the meantime about 20 flies perched on my face, getting in my nose, ears and eyeballs. This was definitely not a normal job, but I think that's one of the main reasons why I liked it.
The resort lifestyle when not at work is a constant cycle of partying, boozing it up and maybe hooking up at the Res (our very own Residents' Club). I found this out on my second night
when I woke up to hear my room-mate- one of the smoothest and most prolific ladies' men I've encountered on my travels- shagging some hideously screechy girl (think cat in microwave) who I later found out that I'd be working with at Sounds. Awkward yet hilarious. With about 800 people, mainly in their early twenties, working away from home in such a remote location, the culture is that everyone is an alcoholic, every guy is a player and every girl is too. It's great fun, as long as you don't get too caught up and lose touch with the real world. There have been many nights that I can't remember, including the Outback Ball, my birthday, centurion night (a stellar performance by Josh, Ajit and myself!) and my last Res night, but everyone knows everyone's business in Yulara so you can always find out what you drunkenly did at Res brekkie on Saturday morning.
The remoteness of Yulara means it's a good place to save up, provided all your money isn't spent on pissing it up with the Aussies. I had this problem in my first few weeks but later made amends by working a 130-hour-fortnight for the Conference
& Banqueting department, involving barely legal back-to-back 16 hour shifts that left my lips and nose dried out and my feet barely resembling feet by the end. The nearest proper town is Alice Springs, which is not only a 6 hour coach ride away, but also a bit of a shit hole in itself. That meant 3 and a half months without cinema, fast food, shopping and all the other possibilities we city folk take for granted. I also saved money by loading up on staff meals in the canteen at Sails in the Desert hotel and silently feasting on kangaroo with my work buddies once the guests finished main courses and were having their star talk.
When I wasn't working or 'gettin on it' with the Sounds crew or the original group, I managed to do the tourist bit in the 'red centre' of Australia. I conquered Uluru by climbing up to the top of it, experienced Kata Tjuta by doing the Valley of the Winds walk and road-tripped to the spectacular and under-rated King's Canyon, and I took hundreds, maybe thousands, of photos to prove it. This is a place I have a great fondness for and
feel privileged to have worked in- no more fruit-picking! It is also a place where I met a great Aussie girl that makes all the others look even worse in comparison, and a place where I saved enough money to continue my travels- next destination Darwin, stopping at all the sights to be seen in the Northern Territory inbetween!
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