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Published: October 17th 2006
Sunrise
Good morning.G-Day Mate! Pop-O here from Alice Springs, Central Australia. I'm just off to put some shrimps on the barby and crack open a few tinnies but I'll be back in a sec to tell you about my trip into the Outback... The Red Centre of Australia.
G-Day again! It's still me.. Pop-O. Having left Singapore on a night flight I arrived in Darwin, northern Australia at about 3.30am Darwin time. A bit of a scraggy airport and pretty much deserted. I had to check my stuff in again then wait another 3 hours for my flight to Alice Springs. I love waiting around. Pure fun. Having not slept I arrived in Alice Springs around 9.00am pretty tired out. I headed straight to the backpacker place that I had booked and went to visit the dreamworld. Goodnight. Then all of a sudden I woke up around 3.00pm ... because I set my alarm... because that's what you do with alarms.. you set them to wake you up. Perfect.
It was then time for a wee bit of exploring in Alice Springs and time to get some supplies for my trip... A hat with fly net built in, sweets and water.
They are the 3 basic things you need when travelling to the Outback. Alice Springs is a small town in the middle of nowhere, and is pretty much surrounded by rock and desert. There are quite a lot of Aboriginals living in Alice and they all seem to be drunk. Apparently there is a bit of a problem in Alice with drunk Abo's as they can't handle their grog and keep fighting with other Abo families in something they believe strongly in.. Payback. A bit mental really. Oh well.
For my first meal in Australia there is only one thing that would have been appropriate and that's a barby! Luckily the backpacker place I was staying at were having one so I joined in. Strangely there were no shrimps! I thought they always put the shrimps on the barby - Oh well. The barby was still good. All you can eat barbeque's are always good and they even offered a discount for cleaning your own plate. Thanks. Things like that make washing up a lot more enjoyable and worthwhile.
The next day I was picked up at 6.00am in a big purpose built 4 wheel drive truck type
thing by our Australian guide - Chappy. Again there don't seem to be many English people on the trip apart from a Brummy but they don't count. The rest of them are a mix of Germans, Dutch, French and an Australian Woman. Chappy seems like a pretty cool guy and a typical Australian joker, however he looked like Timmy Mallet with long curly hair. A good look I think. I'm always up for a game of Mallet's Mallet!!
We departed Alice Springs and headed south stopping at a Camel Farm for some refreshments. According to Chappy, in the last week it had just started to get really hot and summer had officially arrived. Cool bananas. At 8.00 in the morning it was pretty warm, however it was a nice dry heat without the horrible humidity that makes you sweat like a dyslexic on countdown! I didn't realise Australia had so many camels, but apparently there are loads... both wild and those bred for export. Cool.
The rest of the morning was spent driving through some pretty mad dry, red, outback scenery. There wasn't anything for miles apart from the odd outback farm. I was surprised however how much
greenery there was.. it wasn't just red dirt and sand, there are lots of desert trees and plants growing out there. Nice. We arrived at our campsite near Uluru, (Ayres Rock) and dropped off our stuff. I for some reason seem to have packed a lot lighter than everyone else. Oh well. The less you bring the less there is to carry! We headed straight out to explore Kata Tjuta, (The Olga's) which were about half an hours drive away. The words 'Kata Tjuta' mean 'many heads' and are named that way because they look like many heads I guess. Well they don't really look like heads but are still pretty impressive. 36 massive domes of red rock sticking out of the ground in the middle of nowhere. The sheer size, colour and formation of these are amazing. All of the Aboriginal religious sites such as the Uluru and Kata Tjuta have strange explanations of how they were formed and the stories always begin with... "In the Dream time". These are the stories that the Abo's believe and pass down from generation to generation. It sounds convincing so it must be true. Definitely. Well... Definitely Maybe... Pretty Definitely Maybe.
According to Anangu, (Aboriginal people and traditional land owners of the National Park) the stories of Kata Tjuta cannot be revealed. Its a secret. Some areas of the park are also restricted as they don't want tourists climbing all over their religious sites. That's cool. I guess it is their land. We spent the afternoon walking through the valley of the Winds which is a track through Kata Tjuta with some amazing lookouts and the odd bit of wind and a snake. There were quite a few tourists here but we were able to find areas of tranquillity. I found this whole place to be pretty impressive!
Having completed our afternoons exercise we headed to watch the Sunset at Uluru, (Ayres Rock). Uluru is an extremely impressive sight.... An absolutely massive red rock in the middle of completely flat land. There were quite a few people here but I guess this is one of Australia's most spectacular natural wonders so it is to be expected. We loaded up with champagne and nibbles and wondered around the Sunset viewing area to find a quiet spot. As the sun set over the Olga's in the distance behind us the colour of
Kata Tjuta at Sunset
Taken from the Uluru viewing area Uluru in front of us and the sky changed through some amazing shades of colour. The whole thing was pretty spectacular and we just sat there watching Uluru and the Olga's until it was dark. Amazingly amazing, or some people might say 'that's pretty perfect'. I ended up talking to this Australian woman for a while and we were last back to the bus where everyone was waiting. Sorry.
A short-ish drive back to camp and some time to reflect on what we had just seen. Good stuff. At the camp it was time for my second Australian meal and my second Australian barbecue... again no shrimps but very good food. I stuffed myself then cracked open a few tinnies which I brought with me. Luckily there was a fridge in our transport so we could keep them cool. I also learnt that it is the duty of an Australian person to keep your beer cold for you. If they can't do that they are not a true Australian .... apparently. Cold beer is definitely better than warm beer and is perfect after a long day tramping through the red stuff! After talking to the foreigners until late it
was time to go to bed. We were given a choice. Option 1. Sleep in the comfort of a tent. Option 2. Sleep out in the open. I obviously went for option 2. If you are gonna go outback you might as well do it properly! Even though Australia has some of the most dangerous snakes and spiders in the world, Chappy assured us that it is fine to sleep out in the open and hardly anyone gets killed. If he sleeps outside every night I don't see why I can't. Anyway, I was in the comfort of a sleeping bag so it was all good.
My choice to sleep outside was definitely worth it if only for the stars! I've never seen so many stars in my life. It was pretty magic. Magic and stars in the same place giving true meaning to that well known phrase!? Where we were there were no artificial lights and it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere so the sky was so clear. This was a million star hotel. Magic and stars in the sky. I saw shooting stars, the milky way, the southern cross and some star formations which
I managed to invent. I just laid there for hours looking at the sky. When I finally went to sleep I opted to put some ear plugs in as I could hear a German snoring. Not a nice noise! Even worse than listening to them speak! (No offence to any Germans out there but lets face it you have one of the worst sounding languages in the world). I eventually dropped off to sleep but would wake up every so often to a strange noise or just to watch the sky some more. The next morning at 4.00am Chappy went around waking everyone up as we would be leaving early to enjoy sunrise at Uluru. He did however forget someone. That person was me. I obviously didn't hear him calling out as I had ear plugs in and was also in the middle of a field pretty much on my own in the dark. At 4.55am they obviously realised that I was missing. I awoke from a very strange dream with a violent shaking from a dutch girl towering above me. Not my favourite way to be woken up to be honest but at least they didn't leave me behind.
Not having had much sleep I was pretty delirious and didn't really know what was going on or where I was. With the aid of my dutch companions I was able to get my stuff together within minutes and get on board ready for departure. It was pretty funny really if not a little strange.
We arrived at the entrance to the National park in the pitch dark waved our passes to the man and drove towards Uluru. When we arrived it was still pitch black, slightly windy and chilly. Whilst lots of tourists were lined up a few miles away to watch the sunrise from the viewing point, we decided to explore this magnificent rock pretty much on our own and much closer up. And so, we began the 9.4km walk around the base of Uluru. Again it was an amazing experience. I tend to use the word 'amazing' a lot but at the end of the day if something is amazing it's amazing. There's not really another world for it... Splendid, Fabulous, Spectacular, Magical. Amazing is definitely the best. An amazing word. Anyway, moving on...
Up close Uluru is completely different to what I expected. From
a distance it looks very smooth but close up you can see many strange markings, cracks and shapes. There are many dream time stories that explain them and indeed how the whole rock arrived in this place that Scientists like to call "Earth". One of the stories went along the lines of this...
In the Dream time there was a big snake person that speaks and it attacked another snake person which fought the other snake person off with a sword in some sort of snake person payback battle. During this battle of the snakes the swipes of the sword made big marks in the big red rock, and big marks where the snake slid down the rock. One of the big snake's can now be seen where it perished. For some reason it turned into red rock. True Story. Definitely.
There's some cool stuff to see on the way round. Ancient caves, Aboriginal rock paintings, some cool landscapes, mad trees, amazing colours, and of course the big red rock that you can't really miss. By the time we completed the walk daylight had arrived in full flavour. Breakfast flavour. I'll have an Orange please, even though I
hate peeling them. That's why I cut it up into segments with a big knife. Similar to the oranges you used to get at half time during a football match. Nice. Lots of tourists were now starting to arrive and it was starting to get hot hot hot. The aboriginal people ask that people do not climb the rock as it has great spiritual significance to them. However many people still climb it.
After a visit to the Uluru cultural centre we headed back to camp for lunch then set off on the next part of our adventure. Travelling through a vast landscape of red sand dunes and desert oak trees we made the journey to Kings Creek Cattle Station. A pretty big cattle station but I couldn't see the cattle anywhere. Perhaps they were hiding? I boarded a quad bike for a zoom around the place. 100 percent fun riding around this place with some pretty cool lookouts and scenery. Good stuff. When I made my way to where we would be camping dinner was already on the go.. some sort of traditional meal cooked on the campfire. Lovely campfire bread. I saw some pretty massive spiders around
Uluru
A big rock the area where I would be sleeping but apparently its the little ones that are dangerous not the biggens. Safe. After the usual campfire shenanigans I went to sleep again in the open near to the campfire. Again the sky was pretty magical. I slept reasonably well I think and didn't get attacked by the Dingo. It just took someones boots instead, not mine. Daggy Dingo Dog. Did you know Dingo's don't bark? Now you do. They just steal boots, and babies.
Again a pretty early start. When your hiking in the Outback its best to do it early in the morning when its cooler. We headed out to Kings Canyon where we did a long walk up and around it. Breathtaking views to be seen here. There are some strange and wonderful rock formations and the lost city which kind of looks like a Star Wars style city scape made from red rock. Cool Bananas. There are also lots of plants and trees which you just wouldn't expect to be growing here. The Garden of Eden is a natural tropical garden in the middle of the Canyon with a natural water hole. Nice. After all that walking we
were well hungry so we headed to the best burger joint in central Australia... Chappies. They were tasty burgers but there was loads and loads and loads and loads of flies everywhere. Everyone was walking around in circles waving there arms about whilst trying to eat. It looked a bit like a day out at the park for mentals. I managed to get my plate under the fly net that conveniently pops out from my hat when needed so was able to avoid eating the little blighters. Good work.
We travelled on the Mereenie loop towards the MacDonnel ranges to a very scenic campsite at Glen Helen Gorge. There was a beautiful natural water hole here which a few of us went swimming in. Absolutely freezing, crocodile free, very refreshing. Good stuff! After Spaghetti Bolognaise that Chappy somehow cooked on the BBQ we headed to the pub at the campsite. This pub was in the middle of nowhere and probably the only one for miles and miles. We were extremely lucky in that this mad Australian guy was performing in the pub. He was a pretty crazy guy and played music with spoons. Then there's this French doctor that
is travelling with us. After 2 beers he was wasted and spent the whole night doing the ostrich dance. Amazing. Eventually I went to sleep pretty late but was lucky to have a lie in until 6.30am. :-)
We headed to a place known to most people that know it as Ormiston Gorge. I loved it here... We walked around the bottom of this massive, completely deserted gorge and saw some rock wallabies. This is a very tranquil place with some colourful big rocks to climb on. After scrambling up and around for some views from the top we journeyed on to some other cool places.. Glen Hellen Gorge, Ellery Creek where we had lunch, the Ochre pits and a big gaping chasm known as 'Standly Chasm'. Great fun exploring these! Just in case you were wondering, the Ochre pits is where the Abo's get the Ochre to put on their faces to create pretty patterns. Nice!
In the afternoon we continued on to an Aboriginal community known as Wallace Rockhole. Now, I thought that the Abo's would live in the desert and sleep under trees and stuff like in Crocodile Dundee but obviously not. There are lots
of these Abo communities which seem to be sectioned off from the rest of the world. They have houses but they still do Abo stuff like eat grubs, eat berries, go hunting, go walkabout etc. but at the same time they also have schools, clothes, and even cars! The communities are alcohol free zones as they can't handle their grog, which is why many of the Abo's move to places like Alice Springs, get drunk, fight and walk around with a bucket of petrol around their neck so that they can sniff it to get high. Anyway, we met this aboriginal woman going by the name of "Brenda". She took as around the place, showed us some aboriginal tools, and told us about her life. She was pretty cool. We had our final meal and a massive campfire which I cooked marshmallows on. Germans, French, and Dutch don't like toasted Marshmallows... weirdo's. It didn't matter though as I got to eat the whole bag. I was now getting used to sleeping outside and jumped into my sleeping bag for another cosy night under the stars. However, I was rudely awoken by 30 seconds of rain in the morning. It was
good timing though as it was time to get up anyway.
On the final day of the trip we travelled through Finke Gorge National Park into Palm Valley. Some pretty bumpy terrain and lots of off road driving to get there but it was worth it. Palm Valley is a pretty mad place. Red gorges, and lots of Palm trees and Cycads which just seem out of place here in the Outback. Somehow the rock underneath manages to suck all of the water that arrives from the sky and store it so that these trees and plants can flourish in full glory. We went on a good bush walk over the top of the gorge and through the stands of ancient palm trees. We've done lots of bush walking on this trip but every place we have gone is completely different in every way. I never expected the landscapes out here to be so varied. An amazing place! There was also some wildlife in the area and we saw a number of wild kangaroo's hopping by for a look. It's pretty cool seeing them out here in the wild. me likes the Kangaroo's. I wonder what they taste like??
I
t was then time to travel back to Alice Springs for the next day I would be leaving the red centre. Goodbye everyone.
This has been a great start to my Australia adventure. There's some pretty cool stuff out there amongst all that desert! It's definately worth a look if your thinking of popping by!
Cool Banana's. Over and Out.
Pop-O
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