Ok so this blog will consist of everything we did on our 3day/2night stay in the outback of Australia's Northern Territory. The tour included seeing Kings Canyon, Kata Tjuta and most important of all Uluru(Ayers Rock).

It was a very early pick up from our hostel in Alice Springs at 6am for our 300Km drive to Watarrka National Park where the Kings Canyon is. On the bus we met our group of 21people. There were 3fellow Scots, 2 English, 1 Belgian, 2 Korean, 2 German, 3 French, 4 Dutch and 2 from Hong Kong. Our guide was an Aussie girl nicknamed TeaBag who was very informative and did an excellent job on teaching us about the local area and its culture.

The drive from Alice to Kings Canyon took us around 4 1/2hours and we arrived around 1/2pm in scorching heat. We had regular driving breaks where on 1 we had to introduce ourselves to the group and tell them our greatest achievement so far in life! Owen our Alice Springs Hostel room-mate said his greatest achievement was "Being Born"! Absolute belter!! We had a nice lunch on arrival at Kings Canyon then headed on the 6Km Kings Canyon Rim walk. The walk was not too strenuous but the heat made it a little harder, our very experienced guide however had us all prepared with Water and regular breaks to teach us about the local fauna and Aboriginal Culture. Along the walk there was some excellent views of the Canyon and surrounding outback bush. Was a very nice start to the tour, have seen better scenery/views on our travels but still good to have seen and both enjoyed the walk. During the walk really got to know Owen well and he was kind enough to take some really good pictures of us both! He is such a genuine nice guy with a heart of gold. After finishing the walk we headed to our campsite for the night which was still inside the Watarrka National Park. Made some Spagetthi Bolognese for dinner, toasted some marshmallows and then got our Swags ready to sleep for the night. For those who dont know like i didn't, a Swag is just a oversized sleeping bag with a small mattress enclosed. Brishay was a bit nervous about sleeping outside with all the creepy crawlies but there was no chance any were getting in her swag as she wrapped herself up tighter than a Truckers knot! I (Jonny) didn't have the greatest of sleeps but was starstruck literally looking up at the sky. The stars in the Southern Hemisphere are just amazing, especially in the darkness of the Outback. The black canvas of the sky with thousands of sparkling stars was like nothing i have ever seen before and just amazing to fall asleep looking at; in the moment i just felt hugely privileged to have gazed upon it for the hours that i did. It is one of the most amazing sights i have seen in my life and no words really can justify how beautiful it really was. Anyway before i make you all cry with my beautiful sentiment to the stars we set up our swags in a circle around the firepit we lit to keep warm as temperatures can plumit as low as 0degrees in the Outback. As my luck turns out i had set up Swag next to what sounded like a dieing Warthog. The english guy that slept next to me snored really loudly but thankfully the campsite was huge so i moved maybe 50m away and slipped back into my moment of tranquillity.

The following morning we were up at 5:45am for our drive over to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National park. We drove firstly to Yulara which is the settlement set-up to accommodate the 500,000 visitors the area attracts every year. When we first sighted Uluru from our drive it was just an incredible sight, again no words can really do it justice. On arrival at The Rock we were given 2options - 1.Do the 10.5Km Uluru Base Walk around the entire perimeter of Ayers Rock or 2. Climb the 815m Rock Walk which follows the traditional route taken by the Anangu Elders (Aboriginal Tribe that discovered Uluru) to the pinnacle of Uluru. I (Jonny) was in two minds of climbing as had heard the Mala Tribe have asked visitors not to climb in respect of their culture but the Australian Govt has kept the climb open if you want to in fear that closing the climb would decrease the Tourist numbers that visit here every year. Before we made our decision we firstly went to the Aboriginal Cultural Centre at the base of Uluru, which after reading and seeing the stories had made up my mind for me. The climb is very sacred to the Anangu people and after reading the hundreds of "Sorry Letters" from people that have taken pieces of Uluru away as a Souvenir it occurred to me that climbing the rock is like doing exactly the same thing. To climb it you would be washing away/eroding the rock itself so i decided not to climb out of respect for the rightful owners of the lands wishes. The sorry letters in the centre were very interesting to read as were from people that had taken sand/rock from Uluru as souvenirs and after doing so had fallen to quite some severe bad fortune. The letters all contained pleas of forgiveness and the whole of the bottom of the stand the letters were on was covered with returned sediments of stone/sand.

So after the centre we headed across to the start of the Base Walk or for those that wanted to do the rock climb. I couldn't believe it when i seen the amount of people climbing back down from the rock! I felt sick to my stomach that i had thought about climbing but more so that people climbing could be so disrespectful and just thought to myself that really we Humans are not very nice beings. Out of our group of 21 only 2 wanted to do the climb and incredible it was the 2 Scotsmen. They were tinkers from Dundee though so really no surprise there... a*******s! Anyway we dropped off the pair of inbreds then started our walk around the base. The walk took us around 2 1/2hours with regular breaks to take in the beauty of Uluru close up. We ended the walk, met the pair of Sewer Rats from Dundee and headed over to the Sunset viewing point. This was a highlight seeing Uluru change colour as the sun faded over Kata Tjuta behind us. Got some really good pics again with Owen are now professional cameraman snapping away in typical Asian fashion. It was just amazing to see with our own eyes oppose to the hundred of pictures on all the Aussie brochures.

After the sun had set we headed for our campsite for the night. That night we had a BBQ for dinner where we got a chance to try Kangaroo and Camel. The Kangaroo steaks were delicious with a honey and soy marinade but a little on the raw side for Jonny, Brishay liked them though. The Camel sausages had no real taste but were good to try none the less. That night we had tents to sleep in where we shared with Owen and the other Korean on our tour, a lovely girl called Yun. We looked through each others pictures in the tent laughing and joking about how small Koreans are and teaching Owen some Scottish lingo. 'Flying Low' and 'Pure Dead Brilliant' were his favourites. Got an early night as were getting up for our final day to see the Sunrise above Uluru.

We were up at 4:45am, yes 4 f***in 45 in the morning but my god it was worth it. The sunset was amazing but not a patch on the beautiful colours the sunrise created. We witnessed the sunrise from quite a distance from Uluru but was just perfect to see it rise above it and create the most beautiful light. Behind the viewing platform we were standing on was another sacred Mala site called Kata Tjuta. It was also quite impressive and actually a little bit bigger than Uluru. Both views were just breathtaking and no picture in the world can beat seeing it with your own eyes. Once the sun had risen and everyone had got some photos we headed over to Kata Tjuta for our final walk of the tour. The walk was only 5 1/2 Kms but the surface was very uneven and quite steep so took us a few hours again stopping for Teabag to inform us of some very interesting Aboriginal stories. Kata Tjuta or Mt. Olga as its commonly known are a very sacred sight for the Mala men of the tribe and thankfully visitors are banned from climbing this. Kata Tjuta means Many Domes in Mala language and we were told that in there figures they only have 1, 2 and then for every other number they just use 'many'. Mt. Olga is the biggest of the domes and the whole collection of domes is commonly called the Olgas after the first explorer that came across them, cant remember the craters name though lol. The walk was beautiful aswell and a fitting end to such a wonderful tour.

The scenery in this area of the Outback obviously is world renowned but it really does take your breath away seeing it with your own eyes. Both had the best time walking around all 3sights taking in the wonderful scenery and learning so much about Aboriginal culture. Has been the experience of a lifetime and have images not just in our camera that will remain with us for life. Our group were not the best of bunch but Owen fairly made up for that. Really has been one of if not the kindest, nicest person we have met travelling and have shared contact details so hopefully our paths cross again in life. He has invited us to visit him in South Korea which was quite high on our list to visit anyway so hopefully in the near future we will meet again.

We know are on board our flight to Sydney where we spend 4days before we head to the island paradise of Fiji.

Until next time Uluru...

Jonny and Brishay