Let the Tour begin - Part 3 Alice Springs to Adelaide

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After our amazing few days in Alice we were finally refreshed and ready to get on tour again! We had also stocked up at K-Mart with with a few extra pieces of clothing as we had been told about how cold it was going to be camping at night. First stop was Kings Canyon - this is a massive canyon as the name suggests (we did this tour about a week ago and I'm struggling to remember what we actually did!! Keep meaning to write it down so I can do this blog). At Kings Canyon we did a walk for a couple of hours which went all the way around the canyon, including a place where they have a shot in Priscilla Queen of the Desert when they are in the outback.

Then it was off to Uluru, via Fooluru for sunset. This is a rock, very similiar to Uluru (as the name suggests!). It is on the way to Uluru and apparently people think they have seen the famous rock and turn around but haven't actually seen it. The sunset here was ok, but actually not that great as far as I can remember!

Then it was off to our campsite for our first night in the freezing cold. As we were in the desert the temperature gets down to about 0 degrees at the evening. This meant that everyone was wearing all of the clothes that we own including hats, gloves, leggins, trousers and about 4 tops to try and keep warm! We had the option of sleeping either in a tent or in the swag. We choose the tent for the first night and then the swag. Apparently a swag is warmer but you are supposed to sleep in just socks so that your body temperature is held within the swag. I just couldn't do it though so still slept in my swag with all my clothes on! I didn't really enjoy the swag that much as I just got kinda wrapped up inside my sleeping bad and swag so it was really uncomfortable and I couldn't really move! I'll have to get used to it though as we have about 8 nights in one soon when we do our Kimberley tour.

So we got up at a really stupid hour to go and watch sunset over Uluru. We did the typical walk around the rock in about 2 hours, which was nice. I thought that the rock would have been all smooth but it is actually quite rough and much bigger then I actually realised. I still can't believe that people climb Uluru as the Aboriginals don't like people climbing it and also it looks really steep and dangerous if you ask me! These people have no idea what they are doing and just bascially hold onto the rails that has been placed onto the rock. Stupid idiots!!!

After our first visit at the rock we left and went to Kata Tjuta which is more rock formations near Uluru. Then it was back to Uluru to go on a different walk, this time with our guide who showed us loads of caves and Aboriginal rock art. This was really good and much more interesting then just walking around the rest of the rock for 2 hours (gets a bit boring after a while!). Again we got to see how stupid tourists are as there were people who have climbed over a barrier to walk around the place. People are such idiots - clearly if there is a barrier it means don't go passed here. Our guide told them off so that was good!!

It was then time for sunset at Uluru (it really was a full day at the rock - a bit overload but I think better to do it in one day rather then stretch it out over 2 days). For sunset we were far away from the rock so that we could see the whole rock in one picture. We were very posh and had some wine in plastic cups to drink whilst enjoying the view! Sunset was really good and the colour change of the rock was amazing.

After Uluru over-load it was time to leave and spent a day on the bus again - fun! Our next destination was Cooper Pedy - the underground opal village in the middle of nowhere. From stories I had heard in the past I was really expecting everything to be underground but it isn't like that. When they say underground, what they mean is in a hill, with the front cut open and a house placed inside it. The reason they do this is because it gets really hot in summer and really cold in winter so by being underground it keeps the temperature at about 25 degrees. We stayed in an underground bunkhouse and went to the underground bar to drink. None of it seemed like you were underground so it didn't feel strange at all. It was actually nice and cosy and I liked the affect it had on the walls.

We also got to eat out for the first time in ages as we had pizzas instead of cooking as a group. Unfortuneately we didn't have enough pizza and Ian complained about it for the rest of the trip (even though he had more then everyone else!!).

We had a tour of a mine and watched a sweet video (made in the 80s) of opal mining. If anyone is looking for a job they need miners at Cooper Pedy, but you have to be self-employed and it costs quite a lot to hire all the equipement. You could strike gold though as apparently 95% of the opals in the world come from Australia and of that 80% comes from Cooper Pedy.

Cooper Pedy generally is a bit of a hole and I think the local people are a bit strange! I think 1 night was enough for me there and I purchased a very nice opal ring from there too!

Next stop was Quorn, where we stayed in a mill for 2 nights. This was like luxury for us as the place had a log fire, a tv and a dvd player (adventous travellers who like to watch TV!!). Quorn is also famous as this is actually where they filmed Wolfe Creeke. We were showed the road the girl is killed on and everything. Of course this meant we had to watch Wolfe Creek on dvd, which I was worried about as I thought it might freek me out for our campervan around WA. It was ok though as the film really isn't that bad.

We spent the next 2 days walking around the Flinders Rangers. We also saw the best sunrise I have ever seen as it looked more like a sunset rather then a sunrise. The sky looked like it was on fire and had the most amazing pinks.

The Flinders Rangers was nice, but kinda looked like England with the green fields everywhere. It was such a contrast between the dessert and red sand that we were used to.

Finally after this we made it to Adeliade where we were greeted with the freezing cold and rain! Also on our first night here we were overcome with grebos - it was like being 16 again and in the Standard!! Very strange and I do have a bit of a hatred for 'alternative' who all look the same. This would probably be the most annoying thing about Adeliade as everything else is actually quite nice. We went for a walk today and it kinda reminds me of Oxford or Cambridge as we were walking around the river and the universities. Things here actually look old, although they still aren't old by our standards of course. The shopping is also quite good here and everything is close so it's nice and easy to walk around.

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