How to begin. This weekend was absolutely amazing, a side of the Australia that I have heard about but is so hard to truly imagine. The program ended on Thursday, and Friday I flew out with Jessica to the outback, to begin our travels.
Jessica ready to go
Virgin Airways was fine, though no snacks and no entertainment were provided. Luckily I slept most of the way. As we were landing, Jessica's coworker had said it would look like you were landing on Mars, and it was true. The ground was so red, it didn't seem real. From my seat, it looked as though we were landing on a dirt runway, though Jessica could see that there was actually a small strip of road beneath us.
Talk about small airports, this thing was tiny, and looked more like a small house than an airport. When we got off the plane in Ayer's Rock Airport, we were welcomed with extreme heat, though at least it was dry heat, unlike the humidity we'd just come from in Sydney. Apparently, you also cannot bring fruits or vegetables from New South Whales into the Northern Territory, so we quickly ate what we had and threw the waste into the quarantine bin.
Apparently, most of the tours that show all of the major sites nearby start in Alice Springs, so we may have been better off flying into there. Instead, we had time to kill until a bus took us to Alice Springs. We took advantage of a free shuttle to Yulara (the tiny little "town") and stashed our bags at the hostel we were getting picked up from, and wandered around. There is not much to do in Yulara. There is a supermarket, a cafe, a restaurant, a bank (aka just an ATM), hairdresser, and about four souvenir shops (not included the ones within the 4 resorts).
We headed to an outlook but took a few quick pictures and left, since we both got super sweaty.
Then we wandered around the town and hopped in and out of the souvenir shops, as we were too hot and wanted air conditioning, so we got to know the shop keepers pretty well. We also saw a cool performance of aboriginal dance, and they even taught us a female emu dance (yes, I danced like an aboriginal) and they taught us to peck each other.
Emu Dance
The bus ride was nicer than our flight. They had a movie (A Knight's Tale) and snacks (gummies)! It wasn't the best sleep I've had though, but we almost ran over a wallaby (a real wild one) and a cow. When we finally got to our hostel around 1 am, they had forgotten we were coming, and the guy who checked us in was pretty drunk, but he just threw us into two beds in and eight person room, and since we were only there for 4 hours it didn't really matter.
The next morning began our adventure. We spent more time on the bus than we'd anticipated, but I think it was partially due to the extreme heat that day. Our last pickup from hostels was actually Rachel N (from our program) and her mom! I knew they were coming out here but who would've guessed we'd be on the same tour? It was really nice.
Our first stop was King's Canyon. We were supposed to originally do the full rim walk, but it was way too hot for that, so we just climbed to a beautiful lookout. On the way we started getting to know some of the people on our trip. There was an Austrian couple, a French speaking couple from an Island near Madagascar, two German guys and a German girl, a Swedish guy, a guy from Holland, two Irish girls, a British girl, a South African guy, and a bunch more people, twenty one in total. Over our time I spoke with most of them. The French couple (who was on their honeymoon) was great at spotting animals, so that was fun.
The climb was all these natural stairs, and after not having been allowed to really use stairs in our building, I was really not used to it. When Josh (our guide) made it to the top, he found us all on the wrong side of the lookout, and when he told us all that we were looking the wrong way, we replied that the side we were on had the breeze, though we did move anyway. Good thing we did, because we got to see a waterfall! Considering that it's a desert, that's pretty rare, and we were incredibly lucky to be there so soon after the rain. Parts of the canyon had even flooded, though we missed those.
After getting back down, we did a creek walk. Along the way Josh pointed out ghost gums (trees), which have a white powder covering them and apparently reflect the moonlight. What a tease, since we didn't get to see them at night! It's not fair just to tell us and not let us see. We also learned that they absorb water out of the sandstone after it rains, but if they get too dry, they cut off circulation to certain branches to reduce the amount of water they need. It was cool seeing the distinct places they'd cut the circulation to.
Unfortunately due to ecoli levels, we couldn't go to the Garden of Eden, but it was still a nice walk.
We also learned that the reason the rock is so red is that it has iron in it, and as it rusts it turns red, and you can tell which sides of the rock fell off most recently because they are the lightest (the canyon is made from the rock falling and building up in the middle. A gorge is different because it's made by water flowing through.
From there we were supposed to head to the campsite. We stopped at the side of a very empty road (it made me think of Cars) and picked up fire wood (aka huge branches and stumps that we took from dead trees), and of course took pictures in the street. As we were getting the wood we watched a storm beginning far in the distance, with awesome lightning and very dark clouds.
As we continued driving we ended up in a small sandstorm, with red clouds to match the ground, and then we saw the storm on one side of the bus and a rainbow on the other. I watched the rainbow slowly disappear from the bottom up. The sun then showed through a bit, casting a beautiful golden glow on everything. It was amazing.
Unfortunately, the camp at which we were supposed to stay had a very small tin roof that was supposed to act as shelter, but clearly wouldn't help in the storm, so we just stopped to drop the wood for another group (Josh drove down the dirt road at full speed, saying that you had to go as fast as you could, I'm assuming you don't get stuck?) and then headed on to the bigger campsite in Ayer's Rock (this tin roof had a bit of sides as well and was a bit larger). This one had showers and bathrooms which was nice, too.
After a nice relaxed dinner, we all headed to bed. It was really nice, they provided swags, mattress like things and sleeping bags. There was a spider which the South African guy tried scaring all the girls with (and succeeding with most).
I actually think I got a better night's sleep that night than the night before.
We woke up bright and early to see the sunrise over Uluru. It ended up being pretty cloudy, but I think they just added nice patterns to the sky.
We fueled up with breakfast, and I finally had vegemite! It wasn't as bad as people made it out to be, though it wasn't my favorite. I'll need an Australian to make me vegemite toast sometime so I can get the real experience.
Despite our exhaustion, we had a long day ahead of us.
From sunrise we headed to Kata Tjuta (Mount Olga) for a hike. We decided to do the full hike, with about half the group, and met the rest of the group at the top of an outlook in the middle. Thankfully Josh met us there with a cool welcome of a water gun, as the whole thing was pretty flat and easy, with some interesting areas that had been burnt, except for the climb to the lookout, which was pretty steep and happened to be when the sun came out.
On the hike back, when we were with the French speaking couple, we spotted a beautiful bird, that I'm not sure the name of but it was green and blue, and a bit yellow, and then we saw a wild kangaroo! Trip complete.
After relaxing back by the pool and eating a nice lunch (I learned I like beets with tuna), we headed to the cultural center, to learn more about aboriginal culture and life around Uluru (Ayer's Rock), and some of the dreamtime stories (tjukara I think it was called) that have their proof on the rocks of Uluru. It's interesting to know that aboriginal people from that area work with park rangers to make the rules for the place, and still care for the land, and help teach scientists about the flora and fauna of the area, and are even trying to bring back some of the animals that used to be there and have left. It is so kind of them to allow us onto their land, and it is good that more and more people are learning to respect the land.
We then went on a boiling walk, looking at some of the places we'd learned about through the stories. We saw paintings on the rocks, where elders congregated, and where women made food. Josh also told us about how aboriginal women from that tribe determined whether a boy was suitable to marry her daughter by hitting the boys who were laying face down suddenly with a stick, and if they didn't cry out they were good enough. Boys are also initiated by having a front tooth knocked out. He explained how it is all about gaining complete control over body and mind. In an area such as Uluru, which is particularly hard, the people must be particularly strong in order to survive.
On our last stop around the rock, we saw a place that turns into a waterfall in the rain. Sadly there was no falling water, but there was some still water at the bottom, evidence of the rain the day before. There was also a "No Swimming" sign, which is a bit silly because it appears that if there would be enough water to swim it would actually cover the platform and no one could get there anyway.
No, we did not climb Uluru. We walked around the base and looked at significant sites. In places where you weren't allowed to take photos because of the religious significance, we didn't.
Sadly, on our way out, we saw a guy beginning the climb. Here's a list of what's wrong with that:
1. It's incredibly disrespectful to the aboriginal people.
2. Due to the extreme heat, the climb is actually closed for the summer (yes, don't forget it's summer in Australia), so it's actually illegal to climb now, and you can get a $5,000 fine (and with the Australian dollar so strong that's even more)
3. Someone saw him about to go up and apparently he only actually had about a liter of water on him, even though it's a 4 hour hike with no shade and incredibly hot and pretty dangerous.
Needless to say, we all though he was incredibly stupid, and Josh called the park rangers to catch him (we later found out that they caught him but didn't fine him. I think he may have been banned from the park though but I don't quite understand what happened). We also learned that if less than 20% of people who go to Uluru climb the rock, it will become illegal to do so. It's currently at 25%, with the majority of people climbing being Japanese and Australian, as Australians tend to be the least understanding of aboriginal culture.
Posing Lizard
After all that it was time for sunset by Uluru. Turns out you go to the same spot where you saw sunrise, which means that the sun actually sets in the opposite direction, but it's supposed to turn the rock a beautiful purple.
Waiting for sunset at Uluru
Unfortunately, there were lots of clouds blocking the sunset itself, and I think it changed the rock color, but it was still cool to watch. The clouds were pretty cool patterns, and off to the side it looked like a fire between the clouds and horizon, as the sun was setting and there was wisps of clouds and rain in the distance. It was great to see and gave us a lot of time to spend as a group.
Due to the storm threat, we headed back to camp pretty early, and sat around again. Oddly, there was an expected number of beetles of all sizes, flying ants, and smaller ants that killed any of the flying insects that landed too close to them. For some reason they decided that where the girls were sitting was the perfect spot to congregate, so we all decided to have a girls slumber party in the laundry room. It didn't work out quite as planned, as there ended up being some bug that woke Rachel and Hudson up, and their screaming kept me up. So much for the laundry room giving a better night's sleep. I think I would've been better off outside under the stars that came out.
I was right to leave out my bags though, as by morning all of the bugs had flown away.
We again rose bright and early, and then we all opted to do the full hike around Uluru (minus the part we'd done the previous day).
Hiking at sunrise is one of my favorite things. The temperature was perfect, and Jessica and I did most of the hike with Michael. He told us that most people thing sausage is THE German food, but it's actually schnitzel. I also learned that schnitzel is most commonly pork, even though I'd always thought it was typically chicken. He also commented how few American's he'd met out here, and how it was interesting how much we've both traveled, considering that we're American, but I think that it's so far from home that most American's who you would meet in Australia would be the type who travel a lot.
Back to the hike, it was flat and easy, and we just took our time enjoying the views. We saw another cool water hole. I'd love to sometime see a waterfall out there.
Taken on the Canon "Vivid" Setting
The waterfall
On my DSLR manual (aka what it really looked like- not so different from vivid)
Sadly that's where our journey in the outback had to end. They took us back to the airport, where we actually ran into Leslie (from our program) and her mom. Mom, her mom said to tell you that coming from a mother, she'd like to reassure you that we look good (granted, that's now 5 days ago but hopefully it'll help).
I'm so glad I met everyone, and after meeting all of the various people on my trips, I feel more than ever that I would love to learn more languages, so that I don't have to always hope people know English, and I can more easily get to know people.
The outback is such a peaceful and beautiful place, with gorgeous colors and so much openness. I am grateful that I was able to experience it, and I would love to go back again. I'm so glad Jessica and I decided to go.I'm sure I left out a ton in this post, but while I'm traveling it's not so easy to update.
Next up: Bangkok (where I'm writing from)
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