Cloud 9 'Outback Tour' Part 1

On Sunday 18th Jan, we caught our Tiger flight to Alice Springs! Again, no problems and apart from a little turbulence it was a good flight! (Especially for 40quid each!!!)We didn't expect to arrive to dark cloud and 20 degrees temperatures though! Whenever we've checked the weather forecast Alice has always been 40+degrees, so it was a bit of a shock! We had our hoodies on most of the day in the outback, now that's a bit crazy!!!! It was also very strange arriving to a very green place….we were expecting red desert type surrounds, but the red centre has had a lot of rain so everything around was green!Well what can we say about Alice Springs……there certainly isn't much here! We were hoping to spend a day by the pool but we couldn't so instead we took a little walk around the town! Don't go to Alice on a Sunday…everything was closed (practically!)

I was expecting more of a shanty town but it wasn't! It was just like any other little town we have passed through, however the only difference being there are a lot of outcast aboriginals sitting out on the streets drinking/smoking. Apparently because of their antics they have been thrown out of their communities and have no other choice but to hang around the streets. Alice is one of the most dangerous places to be in at night time and it has the highest stabbing rate in the whole country!!! Do you still want to come visit here!

Haha!It wasn't too bad, just not much to see and it did start to rain, so we kind of spent the rest of the day at the hostel, preparing ourselves for our 9 day adventure (Cloud 9). We met quite a few people who were to be on our tour and just chilled. We had an early night as our bus was picking us up at 6am.

So…to the start of our adventure. We booked this tour at home before leaving for Oz and it did take us a week to pluck up the courage and press the pay button as it did cost us quite a bit. We did it with Adventure Tours and Kate our guide picked us and we headed out into the red centre, the closest point we'd get to being right bang in the centre of this huge continent!We started off with 21 people, only 3 Brits, but our fellow Brit was from Cross Hands!!!! Catrin is a doctor and is working in Sydney, she was lovely girl. There were a few Canadians, Dutch and quite a few Germans!

What I need to explain is our 9 day tour is 3 separate tours combined into 1, so some people were only doing the first part and then we had others join us for the 2nd and 3rd part. In total there was 7 of us doing the whole 9 days together, so it was vital that we all got along!!Our first stop of the day was at a Camel Farm an hours south of Alice on the Stewart Highway. We had a short camel ride which was hilarious and then some people actually bought camel burgers!!!! We didn't though!It wasn't until Kate told us a story back on the bus, I didn't know there were approximately 2000 wild camels in the outback. We learnt quite a lot of history from Kate during the whole trip and the Stewart Highway runs all the way from Adelaide to Darwin and was names after an English guy John McDoughal Stewart who travelled all the way up through the outback mapping out the overland telegraph line, so that Australia could communicate with the rest of world. It took him three attempts to reach Darwin but he finally did it with the help of his camels which can go without water for up to 4 months, so they came quite in handy. They were imported from Afghanistan and were used purposely to explore the outback back in the day! So….when motor cars became the prime use of transport the government ordered camel farmers to kill their camels. Instead of killing them the farmers decided to set the free (lucky camels!) so now there are lots floating around the outback! We didn't get to see any though!

After travelling south for a few hours we then turned west onto Lassiter Highway which was to take us all the way to Uluru (Ayres Rock). Another quick story about Mr Lassiter! This highway was named after him when he insisted him and his Dad found gold out this way 10 yrs earlier. So the government paid for an expedition and a few people with Lassiter went looking for the gold on their camels! They never found any and they thought he was lying, so they left and headed back to Alice. Lassiter was adamant there was gold so he went solo. Him or his camel were never found again. So they named the highway after him!After 3-4 hours of driving in the flat wilderness outback which is still green with plenty of trees and plant life we could see Uluru in the distant! They don't use the English names that much anymore as the aboriginals want to try and regain their ownership of the national park fully and the Australians are happy with this, so Uluru is its original name and means 'meeting place'. It truly is magnificent! Even from a distance it just looks so abnormal to have this gigantic rock formation and there is so much I could tell you about it but I think it would take too long so I'll just tell you the interesting parts!!

Behind Uluru we could see the rock formations which is known as The Olga's, but is more commonly known now as Kata Tjuta. After lunch at the campsite in Yulara (the purpose built town of Uluru and Kat Tjuta National Park in 1989) we headed to the culture centre and learnt quite a lot about the aboriginal culture and their history. It was really interesting and they pass on their culture purely through dance, art, song and music. They don't have a written language and we learnt about the aboriginal tribes in the Yulara area. After the culture centre we headed out to Kat Tjuta for one of our many walks over the next 9 days!! These big round rock formations are incredible and cover a masses area of land. I think they are not publicised as much as Uluru as the one rock has more of a big first impression, but these rocks (Kata Tjuta meaning 'Many Heads') is definitely worth seeing up close. Named after Olga the Queen of Spain by Ernest Giles who was exploring the area and only saw it from a distance because he couldn't cross a big lake, so he called it the Olga's! He didn't name Uluru because from a distance he thought it was just a big sand dune! Little did he know eh?!

So the weather here was now brilliant. Little puffy white clouds everywhere and it got pretty hot! Although we did not prepare ourselves for the flies!!! I can not describe how bad there were, you just have to go there yourself to understand why now….WE HATE FLIES!!!!!! I bought a fly net before leaving for Alice but Darren thought he'd brave it out! I think at one point he was going to scream….was funny! We have some very attractive photo's of myself with my fly net on my head! Sometimes it just wasn't worth taking it off, they were everywhere!!!!

So we did about an hours walk into a gorge type shape of Kata Tjuta and it was beautiful. We were surrounded by red rocks, the biggest 'head' being 348m high (1m bigger than Uluru's hightest point!) It was brilliant! On the way back towards Uluru we stopped at some scenic points to take photos and one look out had Kata Tjuta on one side and then on the other you could see Uluru! We still had to keep telling ourselves where we where!

At this point we had a full bus of 24 people as some flew into Uluru's local airport! All Germans including an older couple joined us in matching outfits! Now I'm only telling you about them because they were on 6 days of our trip and they were so annoying! Their English wasn't too great so they were always interrupting and the worst part was they were all over each other all the time, kissing, pecking, canoodling, etc. Now we don't have a problem with this normally but it was constant and when your sitting right behind them on the bus and all they do every 2 mins (no exaggeration) was pecking each other on nose, ears, cheek, forehead, fingers and then after a peck they went in for the kill on the lips! It was horrible!!!!!! They said they were in their early fifties but they looked mid sixties!!! And we found out they got married about 2 yrs ago so they were very much still in lurve!!!! So yeah you may see them in some photos!! The only thing that bugged us was the kissing right in front of us on the bus, it was way too much, haha! Oh well, all part of the fun eh?!

So back to the tour! We headed to Uluru to watch sunset after our walk and photo's. We had a glass of wine and some snacks and watched Uluru change moods. The clouds above the intrusive rock made the photos amazing and Uluru turned from a light orange to a deep angry red, it even turned purple at one point! It was fascinating. There weren't too many people about at the sunset area, so we didn't feel like we were in a tourist mania area which was good. We waited till the sunset and then went back to camp for an aussie bbq with kangaroo steaks! I had a bite (just so I could say I'd tried it, soz sis!) but Darren really enjoyed Skippy! Haha!We got on really well with a few fellow travellers. Jen and Karolina from Canada (both travelling alone) were wicked and you'll see from a heap of the photos through out the 9 days us 3 girls had a ball together. Catrin from Cross Hands was great, it was a shame she was only on the first part of our tour. Darren got on really well with a guy called Thomas from Paris. He was a great guy and was also on the trip all the way up to Darwin. Our camp site was pretty cool. We had 2 birth tent cabins and it was like this on all our campsite through out our trip. It was really hot and humid so we didn't sleep in our bags! I hope the bugs stayed away!!!!! That night we also had amazing stars above us, the skies were clear and the clusters were awesome! Darren is convinced he saw another galaxy!!

Day 2 - we got up bright and early (4am) for sunrise at the great rock! It was really impressive watching Uluru change to other colours. It was really early but so worth it!!!! And the heat was starting to build once the sun was out, so our 6 mile base walk around the rock was easier to do in the early morning sun! People do have the opportunity to climb Uluru but the aboriginal people ask you not to as it is a sacred site to them and it is not something that should be climbed. We decided not to climb it but quite a few people on our group did. They were lucky it was open because at this time of year 98% its closed due to high winds and heat. Kate our tour guide was shocked it was open. So our walk was cool. It was long and hot but it was worth it. We saw Uluru from all different angles, in the bright sunshine and in the shade! The flies were out in abundance and the net came very in handy!Some people come to Ayres Rock and think 'its just a rock', if you come with that attitude then it will always only be a rock. To us it was pretty cool, yeah its just a rock but its a pretty big rock in the middle of nowhere!!

There is so much history here and aboriginal tribes lived here for some what 50,000 years. Kate showed us some certain areas where they used to hang out and their art on the rock made from ocha. The aboriginals had this land taken away from them when the white fella's arrived (White fella and black fella is used all the time out here and is not seen as a derogatory term, so instead of saying aboriginals, we have come to know them as black fella's.) It was only in the late 1970's that they were given back their land under the condition that tourist could come and admire this natural wonder and that the rock climb must go on. So now the white and black fella's work together to preserve the national park area.

After lunch back at camp we headed back east on the Lassiter highway towards King's Canyon. Most of us caught up on some much needed sleep on the bus and then at Kings Canyon we had a dip in the campsite pool which was lush!!!!!!!!

Day 3 we spent at Kings Canyon. Another early start (4.30am) and we headed to the canyon. Kate told us the history of the area, where Ernest Giles stumbled across the area on an outback expedition. He named it after a friend. His travelling partner Goose went further a field after this expedition and he was the guy to come face to face with Uluru and its aboriginal inhabitants. He named Uluru 'Ayres Rock' after the current South Australian Governor.The first bit of the canyon was really steep but when you reach the top the views are outstanding. The canyon itself was beautiful but also the flat unspoilt land out to the horizon was something you don't see every day. We learnt loads about the environment that the aboriginals would live in. They'd use the white powder from ghost gum trees as sunblock and we saw plants they would use for combating illness and just for food. It was great. It was a 4 mile walk which also took us through an area of plants and flowers called The Garden of Eden and there was a beautiful water hole at the bottom! All I can say is 'stunning'. Was so peaceful and tranquil. We had a stop there for a break and then headed back around the other side of the canyon and made our way back down. It was not even 9am and the sweat was dripping off us! And of course we were joined by the flies!!!!!We saw a baby Parenti….Daz was chuffed! He was only a little one but we saw one!!!!We had lunch back at the camp site, had another dip in the pool to cool off and then did the 4hr drive back to Alice Springs!!!!!

It was a long 3 days but so totally worth it! Loved every minute of it. Camping outside isn't too bad, the tents are clean and bug free!We all headed to Annie's Place in Alice for food and drinks! 1 wine turned into 3 or 4 for Jen, Lina and me, but what the heck…..we're in the outback!!!!!Bumped into a few black fella's on the way home from the pub. Thank god we were in a big group of people! Good times! We're having a ball still (if you hadn't of noticed!)Till part 2.………………………..

Alice to Darwin, 1000 miles over 3 days on the Stewart Highway in the Outback!!!!!!!