Blogs from Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 313

During my time here I grew more and more fond of Aboriginal art. I do think it's over-commercialized (you can buy fridge magnets, ashtrays, tea towels etc. I am even wearing a T-shirt with Aboriginal style painting but that I find OK), but it's lovely in museums and it's simply amazing to see the originals: the aboriginals used to paint on rock walls, as they were nomads. The paintings had different reasons: from teaching the kids, to transferring messages to other Aborigines that may come to the area - like what bushtucker (bush food) you can find here, and sometimes pure fun. I saw rock art in Uluru, in Katherine, but a lot of it in Kakadu. I went to Nourlangie rock, it's a nice place also seeing nature by itself but it's really interesting to ... read more

Uluru Sunrise Not the most spectacular But took lots of pics! Our first activity of the day after breakfast today is to go see the sunrise by Uluru. Sunrise is at 7:23AM but we get there with plenty of time to spare. It is a crazy madhouse up at the sunrise viewing area...so many bus loads of tourists...who told them about this? haha Uluru, it is 9.4km around. 3.4 km climb up. 2.4km width. 7 km deep. How heavy is Uluru? One stone. HAHA I thought that was a good joke. We were given three options for this morning. 1) “The climb” if it is open. 2) 3/4 base walk around Uluru and see the sunrise from the base. or 3) Watch sunrise at the sunrise viewing area and then do the 1/2 base hike. The ... read more

What a nice sleep in! Lazy day in Alice Springs. Cook, eat, sight seeing. It was so nice to be able to sleep in and not have to be ready by 6AM this morning! Especially knowing the next three days I'll have to be ready by 5AM. UGH! But it'll be worth it since Kings Canyon and Uluru will be in the cards. That’ll be two nights of camping out under the stars. We’ll be sleeping in something called a swag. I haven't seen one myself yet but have been told that it is sort of like a self contained sleeping "unit" with inflatable mattress and you insert a sleeping bag and the cover can close up over you. So it'll be nice to be able to sleep under the stars at night. Our guide yesterday ... read more

Well here goes ... We have seen the following (summarising first few as have emailed with before): Perth: visited king park and city. went south to bunbury and pemberton (karri forest). visited freemantle. swann river. Kununurra: 3 day tour Bungles (Pernanlulu National Park), Kelly's Nob, Lake Arglye, Ord River and Crocs!!! Katherine: Gorge(s) on a cruise, Cutta Cutta Caves (v humid), and Katherine Hot Springs (not hot so only dipped a toe) Darwin: History Musuem, Lichfield day tour (waterfalls), Jumping Croc Cruise, Croc Farm (and zoo) and we had a Laksa!!! See if you can find out what that is ... and of course Darwin itself. One of the main highlights was the evening Mindil Beach Market. A real community event that had so many great stalls (food, nic naks etc) Alice Springs: Uluru (ayers rock), ... read more

I planned one day of relaxing in the pool in Alice after the long desert trip, but as you know me already, it didn’t happen. I discovered that there were a few interesting places in Alice. Mainly, I visited two places that provide services we are very accustomed to, but in a unique way as they serve a community distributed over a vast area. The first place is called “School of the air”. The school teaches 114 kids that live in an area of 1.3M sq km, where there are less than 10 kids in the same area. Most of them live in remote cattle stations and the only other kids in the area are there siblings. The closest neighbours may be 500 km away. The teachers sit in the “class room” in Alice and transmit ... read more