Ayres Rock (Uluru) and Alice Springs

When we saddly left Albany we made our way back to Perth to catch our flight the next day, to Ayres Rock. It was Australia Day when we travelled and so when we arrived in Perth early afternoon the city was party central! We thought it rude not to celebrate Australia Day so we made our way down to the waterfron in Perth near to the Bell Tower and Kings Park . There was already lots of other people camped out on the grass with picnics and drinks etc so we picked our spot and sat in the afternoon sun. Over the next 4 or 5 hours there was a very impressive ariel display with a lot of planes and helicopters somersaulting overhead, there was also a jetski display on the water briefly. Then, after it got dark the firework display started - it was spectacular with fireworks filling the sky in front of us over the water and fireworks being set off behind us from the top of the skyscrapers too! It was lovely!

The next day we flew to Ayres Rock (Connelan) airport - which is literally an airport in the middle of a desert, but from here there is a company who do free transfers to the Ayres Rock Resort Village (Yulara) where all of the hotels etc are. We spent the rest of the afternoon buying fly nets and trying to get used to the 40 degree upwards temperatures! Here we treated ourselves to a meal in a restaurant; a concept which has become quite alien to us of late, where we ate such delights as Emu, Crocodile and Camel! We were picked up the next day for our 3-day camping trip around the area.

The first stop was the base walk around Uluru (The rock itself), now picture the scene; it's approx. 2.30pm and there's not a cloud in the sky, the temperature is about 40 degrees C in the shade so with that plus the sun beating down on us we were already melting. On top of that we have a billion flies to contend with too, we bought fly nets (as you'll see in the pics) which are a great idea...until you get a fly trapped inside!! These are not just your normal bog-standard flies either, they are suicidal flies who actually try to crawl up your nose, in your mouth, in your ears etc. So walking for a short while in this heat (no shade available) with about 25 flies buzzing on the outside of the net and one inside the net it really is enough to break a sane adult down in to a child-like paddy - you also have to carry a couple of litres of water per person. But the walk is flat and the rock is amazing to see up close , and to hear the Aboriginal dreamtime stories about how part of the rock were formed are facinating. We managed about a third of the base walk before nearly passing out so we jumped back on the bus for the rest where we did a short walk to the Mutijulu Waterhole at the rock. After this we drove further around the other side of the rock to do a guided walk with the tour guide (about 1 painful hour), learning more about the Aboriginal culture. In the evening we drove to a sunset viewing point where we also cooked up dinner and ate whilst watching the sun go down on the rock. From here we drove to camp where we rolled out our swags and lay beneath the stars for a warm 24 degree C night!

Day 2 and we were up at 4.30am to roll up the swags and set off by 5.15am!! We drove to the sunrise viewing point and had breakfast on the roadside while watching Uluru change colours as the sun came up. We then drove to the Valley of the Winds at Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) where we did another gruelling bush hike - but at least this one was at a better time in the day and a bit cooler (about 30 degrees at 8.30am). Here there was the option half way through the walk to do the longer route back, or a shorter route with the guide...obviously we decided that we'd tackle the longer walk!! It was a gorgeous walk with lovely views but the last bit of the walk we did without the guide was a climb up a steep hill; with calves burning, hearts pounding and sweat pouring we made it to the top! After this tiring feat we drove back to the campsite where we had the opportunity to cool off with a swim in the pool, then we were off to Kings Creek Cattle Station where we spent the night. The guide built a fire over which we cooked dinner and we again rolled out the swags on the dirt and settled down to stare at the Milky Way and shooting stars as we fell to sleep...or not in our case! Jo is particularly wary of the creepy crawlies and we had already experienced several flying giant grasshoppers throughout the evening so it didn't help when a frog jumped on her arm in the middle of the night!! The frog jumped...Jo jumped and screamed...I and the girl next to Jo also jumped!! Needless to say that by 4.30am on the third day of the trip we were knackered and getting up for another day's walking! So, the walk at Kings Canyon was probably one of the highlights of the tour as it is beautiful, and we were starting again at 7am before the sun...but, the first section of the walk is a climb from the bottom of the Canyon to the top (before doing the long rim walk) whih is aptly named "Heart Attack Hill". This really is a killer and not for the faint hearted or anyone who's in a rush. But we managed it and then the rest of the walk was gorgeous walking through the ampitheatres, lost city and garden of eden (this is also the place where they filmed the "Precilla's Crack" scenes from "Precilla Queen of the Desert" film). After completing the walk we had lunch and started the journey back to Alice Springs stopping off at a camel farm on the way. Alice Springs is nothing special to speak of, although it's a fairly unique town because of it's location and people,but we did have a well earned beer here before flying out to Cairns.