| "So, it's not JUST a rock!?" - part 1 |
| July 2004 |
| So...left you last time about to start our adventure up to the Red Centre!! Well, we've finished that and moved on from there now! We made our way up from Adelaide to Alice Springs in the heart of the Northern Territory by train...not just any old train, but the train known here as the "legendary" Ghan! It's part of one of the great train journeys in the world, and we were really excited to be travelling on it! It's basically a nineteen hour train journey through nothingness...the great outback Australian desert!! We left around 5pm in the evening though, by which time it was dark, so didn't get to see a great deal scenery-wise until the sunrise the next morning. It wasn't as plush and luxurious as we had imagined it to be, yet even with our backpacker discount, we could only afford to have a seat, not one of the sleeper cabins, which probably explains why it wasn't so plush!! But still a comfortable journey...though our carriage seemed to be the pensioners society holiday! We were surrounded by the over 60's...though it was quite amusing...they were all doing something they had wanted to do for years, so were extremely hyperactive and overdosing on energy drinks?!? So we had a carriage full of knitting pattens, cross-stitch, hip replacement chat, cracking jokes (some were actually quite amusing). We managed to grab some sleep, and awoke just before the sun rose over the desert...it was a pretty amazing sight, and we whiled away the next few hours before arriving into Alice Springs an hour and a half late...though after a nineteen hour journey, an extra few hours didn't seem to make much difference!! Looked like half the town had turned out to greet the arrival of the train...loads of people standing by the tracks as we pulled into Alice...this train draws quite a crowd on it's twice weekly arrival!! We left our geriatric travelling companions on the train to continue their journey to Darwin, marvelling at the train from the outside...this is definately one train you don't want to see at a level crossing...it's a kilometre and a half long! The next day was the start of the tour we had come all this way to do...Ayers Rock and the surrounds!! I was excited, yet a little apprehensive, as I knew we'd be camping outside and sleeping in swags, something I'd never done before, but was keen to try! We had a whole load of driving on the first day, but broke it up a bit with a stop at a roadhouse to see a piano-playing, singing Dingo!! Yep, you read that right...this dog actually stands at the piano and plays the piano while howling...it was all very surreal! Then the next stop was at Rainbow Valley. This is an important Aboriginal area, and is beautiful to look at...multi-coloured rock formations. After that, it was onwards towards our camp site for the first night. We stopped en-route to collect a huge pile of firewood, and clever me decided to try to jump a dry creek bed, tripped in the process with my little stack of firewood and ended up face first in in red dirt...a nice souvenier...this stuff stains your clothes! Oh well! Then onto our protein shot for the day "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" style...our guide was digging around in the dirt to find some Witchetty Grubs...yep, these are the things you've seen people eating on the survival TV shows...white caterpillar type things that the Aboriginals eat...some of us agreed to try them for the experience...that was until I saw the size of them!!! They were HUGE...about 6 or 7 cm long, and fat...I had imagined a tiny caterpillar...so as soon as I saw that I hastily chickened out!! Some of the braver people in our group did try them though...the verdict...not too bad...except the tough skin...eugh!! No thank you! After our first outback sunset, we made up camp, settled ourselves round the fire for dinner and then at an early bedtime, ready for an early 4.30am start, I encountered my first swag! It looked fine to me...just like a canvas sleeping bag that you put your own sleeping bag inside...but I have never been so cold trying to sleep!!!! I had so many layers of clothes on, and 3 pairs of socks and a hat and scarf...but still only managed to get half an hours sleep!! It was a nightmare! We had time for a quick doze on the bus, before arriving at the first stop of the day, King's Canyon. We started with a hike up steep "Cardiac Hill", named for obvious reasons. Stopping to get our breath back at the top, we almost had it taken away again as the sun began to illuminate the rocks around us, turning them bright orange and red! It was definately worth the early start!! We did a 3 hour walk around the canyon, nipping down into the base of it for a while to go to the "Garden of Eden", a palm tree grove with crystal clear pools...beautiful! The walk took us along cliff tops with scary sheer drops, clambering between narrow rocks and up huge cliffs...I can't really describe it, you'll have to check out the photos on the pics pages!! We got to stop by and learn about the different plants and trees and their uses the Aboriginals had for them...these people are amazing...I don't think there's a plant they didn't find some use for! After the canyon, we headed to our next camp to set up during daylight and have a BBQ lunch! This campsite was about 10kms away from Ayers Rock, at the purpose-built resort. So, driving to it, we all got our first glimpses of the Rock!!! And it was truly mesmerising...the bus just went silent!! Everyone was just staring at it... wasn't expecting such a sight...it's absoluely huge, so much bigger than it looks on photos! |