Alice Springs, Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon
We flew up to Alice
Springs from Adelaide which was the cheapest way to get there (and which was
still not cheap). We had a night in a hostel in Alice Springs which was more
like a mobile home, and we spent a bit of time walking round Alice. There is
quite a large indigenous population and sadly homelessness and drinking appeared to be a widespread problem there for the aboriginal community;
many of whom are living in poverty as a result of displacement. Alice Springs
is a strange little town; basic and functional with nothing that really stands
out part from the beautiful surrounding desert landscapes and the River
Todd which is pretty much always dry.
 |
| Todd river - Alice Springs |
The river, which is actually
underground, has been known to flood, so the bridges are there just in case.
Every year the town puts on a ‘regatta’
(called Henley-on-Todd!) where competitors race in boats and bath tubs by
running along the dry river.
 |
| Aussies have been standing on their heads too long |
We were up and awake very early the morning after arriving in Alice as
we were being picked up to go on a 3-day, 2-night tour of Uluru,
Kata
Tjuta (or The Olgas) and the Kings
Canyon. It’s always been a dream of mine to go to Uluru, since reading a
book called ‘Walkabout’
when I was younger; a story set around Uluru, of a girl that gets lost in the
bush and is found by a young Aboriginal boy on his walkabout, which is when
young Aboriginal men are sent out alone into the bush for up to 6 months to
survive on their own and become a man.
 |
| Sunrise on way to Uluru |
Our guide was actually Canadian and had been working out of
Alice Springs for only a couple of years. He was one of the best guides we’ve
had though – What he didn’t know about Uluru and the surrounding area you could
write on the back of a fag packet.
 |
| Prawn Cocktail! |
On the way to Uluru from Alice Springs we stopped for some
coffee at a restaurant where they also keep emus. Our guide said that although the day trippers would be
there to get breakfast which was included in their fee, we didn’t have it
included in ours, so we had to pay for anything we wanted ourselves. Baby D and
I started queuing in front of the buffet with the day trippers, and he got a full fry-up and I got a
bacon sandwich for free. Don’t judge us, we’re pretty skint and Australia is
ridiculously expensive.
Further along the road we spotted what we thought was Uluru
before being told by our guide that it was actually ‘foolaru’,
or Mount
Conner, another huge rock around 150km from Uluru. We stopped off at our
camp to make some lunch and then bellies full, off we went to the rock.
 |
| Uluru |
Once we got to Uluru, we were given the options of either
trekking 10km around the base of the rock, climbing it or going to the cultural
centre to learn about Aboriginal culture and the rock. We would have
preferred to do the base trek and the
cultural centre but there wasn’t enough time to do both, so we did the 10km walk. We
later saw that a lot of people had bikes and were cycling round it. If we’d
known this was a choice we might have done that so we could have gone to the
cultural centre as well, but never mind.
 |
| Uluru |
The climb wasn’t open when we arrived although it did open
later, but climbing is very disrespectful to Aboriginals who see the rock as a
sacred place. That didn’t stop a lot of people and we watched as visitors of
all shapes, sizes and ages took on the challenge – many of whom bottled it
halfway and crawled back down. The climb is unassisted, and there are no
harnesses or straps, hence the reason why over 35 people have died doing it.
The rock is owned by the Aboriginal community having been
returned to them by the Australian government. Aboriginal law states that
climbing is not allowed, but Aussie law doesn’t, so that means you can climb
it. Makes total sense to me. The walk around the base was not difficult and it
was amazing to see this iconic monolith up close and personal. We saw cave
drawings, areas where the Aboriginals hold ‘council’ meetings, spots where they
would cook, and round the base there were several traditional stories. Uluru is
not as symmetrical as you would first think, it is more complex when you’re
right next to it.
We left Uluru about an hour before sunset and got taken to a
great vantage point to have a glass of bubbles and some snacks and watch the
sun go down, casting beautiful light onto the rock and turning it orange.
 |
| Uluru sunset |
That night we headed over to camp and our guide got the fire
going. We got our swags
ready by the fire and some of our fellow campers opted for the cabins. (A swag
is a big canvas sleeping bag with a built-in bed roll to lie on. You put your
normal sleeping bag inside and it protects you from the elements and gives
extra warmth). After taking a stroll to look at the millions of visible stars,
we headed back to camp to get our heads down.
Although we were in the middle of the desert and it was
about 26 degrees in the daytime, it got a bit nippy at night and after the fire
had gone out I woke up shivering around 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep.
There was frost on the swags and we later found out that it had got down to -2
degrees. No way was I sleeping outside on the next night.
 |
| Kata Tjuta, or The Olgas |
Up early the next morning, we got ready to go to Kata
Tjuta which is about 50km from Uluru. This is also known as The Olgas and
is another massive rock formation, but is a series of rocks rather than one big
one. Each of the large rocks has a name given by the Aboriginals, and this rock
formation is another sacred Aboriginal site. It is not as well known as Uluru
and there were fewer visitors there, but in some ways, it is more magnificent
and beautiful than Uluru.
 |
| Olgas |
Our guide told us that the Aboriginal people had
almost given up on Uluru and passed it to the tourists, on the proviso that
they kept Kata Tjuta. This may be true – not much is advertised about this
site. We decided to do the full trek through the rocks, which was around 7.5km
but which was slightly harder going than Uluru as we had a bit of rock
scrambling and climbing to do. The scenery and the views were gorgeous – we
could see why it was kept a secret.
 |
| Olgas |
We had a long drive to our next camp which was close to Kings
Canyon, about 200km from Kata Tjuta. This camp was as basic as the first
one, if not more so, but that’s what it’s all about. As long as the beds are
semi-comfortable and the fire is hot, that’s all that counts.
 |
| Kings Canyon |
We had an Aussie
barbecue that night, complete with kangaroo steaks and a damper,
which is a loaf of bush bread made by our guide, consisting of flour, water and
some salt and garlic powder. Ours was a bit jazzy as the guide threw in a bit
of the prosecco. Some pretty good tucker.
We were invited to next door’s camp
for a fireworks display which lasted all of 2 minutes, and after a glass of
wine, we were ready for bed. We were in a cabin this time, although some people
swagged it. I wangled an extra sleeping bag and a bedroll offered by our new
German pal Michael (who’d stayed in the same Alice Springs hostel as us, and
had his wallet nicked out of his room), so I was super comfortable.
 |
| Kings Canyon |
The final day, we headed off to King’s Canyon. This is
another fantastic place where we had a bit of a walk. The first 500m was
climbing steps but the rest of it was fairly easy going. We were warned to stay
3m from the edge as the cliff had been known to crumble. The canyon was
amazing, we learned how the sea had formed it millions of years before, and we
were able to see the wave marks on the rocks, and were shown the one fossil of
a shell that had been found. We stopped at a place called the Garden
of Eden, a serene spot next to a pool of water.
 |
| Selfie time |
All too soon our trip was
over and we were headed back to Alice, to stay another night at our slummy
hostel (pure luxury in comparison with camping though), before heading down to
Adelaide for a night, then onto Melbourne.
#uluru #kingscanyon #theolgas #katatjuta #ayersrock
No comments:
Post a Comment