Advertisement
Published: April 12th 2013
We have spent the last 10 days or so on an epic journey through the Australian outback from Alice Springs to Darwin, taking in multiple national parks and some amazingly different scenery. As ever, this has resulted in masses of photos and a pretty long blog...sorry!
We flew into Alice Springs and were greeted by a surprisingly overcast day, so headed straight to the hotel to psych ourselves up for the Contiki tour we had coming up the following day ("Rock on 18-35s"! - AKA bring on the cringe-fest). We had decided that, with the huge distances involved, taking a tour around the Northern Territory was the best way to get about - and we didn't want to get eaten alive by snakes or crocs or anything!
Day one of the tour involved having a look around the township of Alice Springs ("the Alice") and the surrounding area - we went to Simpsons Gap in the Macdonnell Ranges, the Anzac Hill war memorial and the Alice Springs Telegraph Station. The first thing we noticed was that the climate was very dry compared to tropical Cairns, and the surrounding land was a deep orangey/reddish colour. The town itself was originally
called Stuart, after the famous explorer John Macdonnell Stuart who committed his life to crossing the country to map out the way for the first telegraph line from Adelaide to Darwin. The town's name was later changed to Alice Springs, after the nearby waterhole, to prevent confusion by telegraph administrators in Adelaide. During the construction of the telegraph line, repeater stations were required every 200Km and Alice Springs was chosen due to the waterhole. However, it turned out to only be a temporary waterhole, so what you end up visiting is a dry river bed!
We also spent a couple of hours in the Alice Springs Reptile Park, where we had a talk about the native reptiles and snakes, and what to do if a snake bites you. Apparently the snakes in Australia have very small fangs so just a single layer of clothing can provide sufficient protection from being bitten. There was then the opportunity to hold a couple of lizards and Hazel bravely put herself forward to hold "Tom the Python". Mark took photos from the opposite corner of the room to keep out of striking distance!
The next day we coached into the out-back for
a bush-tucker tour, where we saw lines of furry caterpillars following each other across the sand. Very Strange! Our guide gave us a brief history of the local Aboriginal way of living before letting us try various 'bush fruits' and a roast kangeroo tail (mmm... tastes like pork!). One very brave guy on our tour agreed to try a Witchety Grub (of 'I'm a Celebrity' fame) - unsurprisingly, it wasn't Mark! We had a talk through the various weapons used to hunt and fight and then had a go at throwing boomerangs at a stuffed kangeroo, which no-one managed to hit! There were also a few Aboriginal artists there, who we were able to meet and who showed us their paintings, which depicted their ancestors hunting and gathering food.
After a four hour drive into the bush (either side of the road the ground is red sand covered sparsley with small trees and bushes) we reached Kings Canyon, which is sometimes refered to as Australia's Grand Canyon. The chasm plunges 270m down sheer red sandstone rock, with a small rainforest in the sheltered middle, refered to as the Garden of Eden. We did the 6km rim walk, which started
with a climb up a steep staircase carved into the rock and then levelled off. The views from the top were great - as well as looking down into the canyon itself, you could see for miles out across the sunburnt (and very empty) Australian outback.
Our "accommodation" for the night, at Kings Creek Station and camel farm, consisted of an Australian "Swag". A swag is essentially a canvas sleeping-bag with a built-in thin foam mattress. We had an allocated area of grass where we lay down the swags, climbed into a sleeping bag and lay inside with our heads poking out praying that there were no snakes around. The night started off warm, but the temperature quickly dropped and around midnight you had to find ways to keep your face out of the cold air. It was a good experience, sleeping under the stars and having drinks around a massive campfire, but the worst night's sleep ever...not sure we will be checking into "Hotel Swag" again!
After a cooked breakfast (well deserved after sleeping rough, we think) we took the coach to Kata Tjuta National Park, the home of Uluru (formally Ayers Rock before 2001, but half
the signs are yet to be changed). The distances are huge, so it took a while to get out there. On our way we spotted what we thought was Uluru out of the window but it was actually another mountain known locally as 'fool-uru'. This is a rock formation which looks very similar to Uluru, but is a bit smaller and has a much flatter top. We stopped for some photos anyway and also saw Lake Amadeus in the distance, which is a large saltwater lake which is usually dried up, but actually had some water in it due to the recent rainfall.
Once we arrived in the national park, our first visit was to The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) which is a formation of several rocks which were pushed out of the ground at the same time as Uluru. The Olgas are less well known than Uluru, which is one single rock, but are nonetheless really impressive. We took an hour-long trek to the base of the highest peak in The Olgas, to take in its immense size but barely touched the surface of the area (everything here is so enormous, it's really hard to understand how long it
takes to get anywhere until you try for yourself!).
The next day was "Rock Day", which involved waking up at 5am and driving out to view the sunrise at Uluru. Although the sunrise was slightly obscured by a couple of clouds, as promised the rock changed colour as the sun got stronger and shadows moved across the face, which was rather spectacular. (This was true despite a small group of us Brits making sarcastic banter about how the rock only changed from black to red to the amusement?! of an old Aussie couple standing next to us).
We were on a tight schedule for the day, so we quickly drove up to the face of the rock and started the 12km base walk around it. This was actually really interesting - Uluru is a single rock which was forced out of the ground millions of years ago and has been eroded by wind and water ever since, creating interesting patterns and textures on the surface. When it rains the water runs off, creating small valleys down the sides of the rock and water pools at the bottom - this has in turn resulted in small areas of greenery
around the base of the rock and in particular around these pools. There are also caves eroded into the rock, which have Aboriginal cave paintings on the walls that can still be seen. Some parts of the rock are sacred to the Aboriginal people and you aren't allowed to take photos of them, so as you walk around the rock there are signs letting you when you can and can't take pictures.
After a visit to the Cultural Centre, we headed to the local airport for a plane flight around the rock. The plane seated 8 people but we were the only ones aboard so had a private plane trip to see the rock from the air. The view of Uluru was fantastic and it was also really interesting to see the vast expance of red desert which stretched out for miles all around.
That evening, we went to the sunset viewing area for fizz and nibbles in front of the rock as the sun went down. It was obviously a popular thing to do, as many other tour companies also turned up - fortunately we were one of the first groups there, so do actually have some
photos without other people in! The rock was lit up by the setting sun, and it really accentuated the colours. Later on, we went back to the resort and made a dinner of kangeroo steak - we thought it was worth a try. The packaging states it should be sealed and then cooked, but left pink in the middle and "springy" to touch...ours tasted kind of chewy, but we'll give kangeroo the benefit of the doubt and blame that on chef-error and communal kitchens!
Our next day was the long drive back to Alice Springs, followed by a 500km drive north to Tennant Creek the day after. Along the way we stopped at the Devil's Marbles, which are large granite boulders scattered across the land with some precariously balanced on top of one another. There was a quick walk around them before the heavens opened and the tropical rain began to pour. When we reached Tennant Creek it was still raining hard, so we dashed between our rooms and then the restaurant for dinner. Tennant Creek is another town which was created to support the telegraph line between Alice and Darwin, and also had a gold rush in the
1930's. The stop here was more to break up the journey than to actually sightsee, as the town doesn't have much going for it these days. While we were there, we spent the evening in the hotel/pub chatting to the local Aboriginal people and attempting to 'throw some shapes' to their favourite country tracks. The highlight of the evening was one of the older Aboriginal women shouting across to Mark - "Loosen up your arms Man, you can't dance white boy!" - she then proceeded to show him exactly how it was done. It was definitely an interesting night...
The next day was a seven hour trip on the bus through the outback to the town of Katherine - named after the wife of the sponsor of Stuart's expedition. The rain carried on pouring down all day but luckily for us, we spent most of our time on the coach watching the Lion King, so it didn't matter so much! As we approached Katherine, we stopped at a thermal pool for a quick dip. Unfortunatley, the recent rainfall meant that the surrounding palm trees and vegetation were a mess and the area was covered in flood water. I think
we only spent 10 minutes max in the warm pool before the furry rocks and slippery leaves beneath our feet (and the massive spiders in the trees) got the better of us. That evening, there was a pizza night in the hotel arranged by our tour guides and we cooled off in the pool to recover from being trapped on the coach all day.
While in Katherine, we visited the Katherine Gorge and took a boat cruise up the river to take in the spectacular scenery. The sides of the gorge are sandstone which absorbs water during the wet season and will often release the water throughout the entirety of the dry season. This leads to a range of ferns and flowers growing along the sides which our guide pointed out. We also spotted a couple of baby fresh-water crocodiles on the banks which was an added bonus.
About an hour north of Katherine was Kakadu National Park, which was next up on the itinerary. Kakadu is one of the few places on the World Heritage List for two reasons, as it is listed for both cultural and natural values. It covers an area the size of Israel
and is not what you would expect of a typical Australian landscape. Large expances of the park are on floodplains, currently flooded as it is the end of the wet season. The earth is less red than further down south and there is an abundance of trees and plants all around. We took a boat trip on the river and had views across floodplains that spread for miles and look just like the fields back in the UK. Apparently there are turtles, crocodiles and water-buffalo inhabiting the area but unfortunately we didn't spot any, although we did see a few bird species which had Hazel reaching for her Binoculars! (I think it's a Christy thing!) The area is owned by the Aboriginal people and leased back to the government; this means they can still perform traditional practices, such as hunting the turtles, snakes and crocodiles and burning the bush to aid new growth.
On our final afternoon in the national park, We took a short walk to see some aboriginal rock art. This a very important part of the Aboriginal culture as, in some cases, the act of painting puts them in touch with their creation ancestors. Some of
the art is sacred and can only be seen by elders, only by men or only by women. This is similar to some parts of Uluru, hence the request for people not to take photos in some areas. Where someone has painted an Aboriginal "Dream Painting", subsequent generations aren't allowed to touch up or change these pictures, as it is thought to bring bad luck. However, you can paint over them with a new picture, as the aboriginal people believe the act of painting is more important than the art itself. This results in layers and layers of paintings, some of which are thousands of years old.
After Kakadu we journeyed on to Darwin. As Kakadu is a wetland area, the hotel had been absolutely crawling with bugs and lizards - including the giant grasshopper that we left squashed under the phone book in our room - and so by this point we were really looking forward to a dose of civilisation...Mark had gone a whole week without a flat white, and was desperately in need of some proper caffeine (apparently he is too good for Nescafe Blend 43)! On the journey up, we stopped off in Litchfield National
Park, to check out some absolutely enormous termite mounds (some are 80-100 years old and the size of trees) and to have a picnic lunch at the base of Florence Falls.
Darwin turned out to be a lovely little city - it's set on the harbour, with some big parks and a nice marina area (and plenty of coffee shops sort out Mark's caffeine hit). There isn't a massive amount to do but it was gloriously sunny, so we spent an afternoon by the pool with our travel buddies before heading out for Tapas that evening. After our farewells we headed to Darwin airport at 5AM to catch our flight to Perth and begin our tour of Western Australia.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 20; dbt: 0.0288s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
john
non-member comment
Hazel birdwatching?!!!
Lovely photo of the Darter. I remember a time (near Cairns, long ago) when we had to go back to our hotel to drop off a bored person after a days birdwatching before the rest of us went off to look for platypus,or is the plural platypi? Who could that of been? Better a Christy late than never!!