Our friends from Perth joined us for this part of the trip and we flew from Perth to Alice Springs where we overnighted in this small town of ~28,000 people. Around 6:30 the next morning, we left by coach for the long drive (~ 450 Kms) to Yulara, a very small resort town in the Northern Territory. The hotel was nice enough but the reception area still has a bit to learn about service. Enough said!
On the way to Yulara, we made a couple of stops. One of them gave us the opportunity to have a camel ride and the pictures below need no commentary.
This was the sign indicating the ladies' and men's rooms....or toilets as the Aussies call them.
Along the way, we passed Mount Conner, part of the Petermann Ranges in Central Australia. Many people mistake this rock for Uluru, or Ayers Rock resulting in the nickname 'Fooloru' (that's my spelling). Mount Conner is actually older than Uluru.
A few quick facts about Uluru. It is sacred to the Aboriginals, is 863 meters (2,831 ft) above sea level, 348 meters (1141 ft) above the plain, 9.4 Kms (5.8 miles) in circumference and is believed to be about 700 million years old. It originally sat at the bottom of the sea but as the sea level sank over millions of years, the rock was revealed. Some of the rock is still about 2.5 Kms underground. The rock is in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.
The first activity in our tour was sunset at Uluru, the official Aboriginal name but which most of us know as Ayers Rock, followed by a BBQ of beef steak, kangaroo fillets, chicken skewers, lamb sausages, garlic prawns, along with red and white wine, bread rolls and salads. We were excited about this. This was our first relatively close look at Uluru.
We were enjoying a glass or two of wine while waiting for the sunset.
No, we haven't changed religion. When we arrived at the hotel and I saw people walking around with those nets on their heads, I thought to myself "I wouldn't be caught dead with one of those on my head". Well, the flies were so bad that the first thing we did was resort to buying these fly nets so that we weren't permanently doing the 'Australian Wave'. It's hard to drink wine with those things on!
By this time, the flies had basically disappeared as they do at night. In addition, it had become quite windy.
Taking pictures frequently to observe the change in the colour of the rock. It's supposed to go a shade of red....which shade, I don't know.
As the sun was setting, it started to cloud over. That was our first indication that we likely wouldn't see much of a change in colour.
After a glass of wine, I started fooling around with the selfie stick in the next two pictures.
Although the rock didn't change colour significantly, I think you can see some slight differences in the pictures below.
By this time, we were advised that the BBQ was cancelled due to the fact that the strong wind had blown over the tables and chairs. It's hard to believe that the tour company wouldn't have a back-up plan but there you have it! Disappointment all around!!!!
Sunset at Uluru was followed by a pick-up at 5:00 a.m. the next day to see the sunrise. So here are those pictures.
Immediately following the sunrise, we were taken on a ride/walk around the base of Uluru. Although the park currently allows able-bodied visitors to walk up to the top of Uluru, they are considering stopping it as Uluru is sacred to the Aboriginal people. Currently, when the temperature reaches 36 C (about 100 F), the park closes the walk.
The next 5 pictures are paintings in a 'cave' in Uluru done by Aboriginals over 5,000 years ago. The various items in the painting represent items that are important in the lives of Aboriginals.
This picture tells the story of a woman who was trying to save her nephew. The heart shape at the top represents where she put one knee. The small hole under the hear represents where she placed the stick she was carrying. The third indentation represents where she dug her hand into the earth; and the fourth indentation represents her other knee.
This is a watering hole which occurred naturally....not man-made.
In the town centre which was a 5 minute walk away from the hotel, we saw this Kangaroo Paw plant - different colour from the red ones we saw in King's Park.
At 1:30 p.m., we were supposed to take a trip to see the rocks of Kata Tjuta, also known as The Olgas. We weren't thrilled about being in the hot sun for about 4 hours so we decided to pass on this trip. I managed to obtain a picture.
We left the next day for King's Canyon.....another long drive. Along the way, we passed a few salt lakes. These are salt lakes that have just dried up because of the blazing heat, leaving only the salt. This is one of the bigger ones that I managed to get a picture of as we cruised along the highway.
We overnighted at the small resort near King's Canyon and were up early for breakfast and our trip to the Canyon. This is sunrise near King's Canyon.
A Dingo strolled up to the restaurant as we were having breakfast. They look a lot like dogs with a slightly more rounded face.
King's Canyon is located in Watarrka National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia. You can do a 3 hour walk around the rim of King's Canyon which is over 100 meters high by negotiating about 700 steps, some of which are pictured below. The steps are literally hewn (if you can call it that) out of the rock.
We had the option of taking a one-hour walk of the 'floor' of the canyon which is called King's Creek. These few pictures are from that walk.
This is a Ghost Eucalyptus tree and it is wearing what the Aussies call a pajama.....jute tied around the trunk. Apparently, some idiots carved their names in the trunk and the tree started to die. The park rangers are trying to make it healthy again so whatever they did to it, they tied the jute around to protect it. The black limbs at the top left and the bottom right are the tree's way of 'saving' itself. It literally kills off a couple of limbs to help the healing process. Ghost Eucalyptus trees are so called because they in a full moon, they glow in the dark.
The Ghost Eucalyptus tree produces a powder, shown by those three white fingerprint marks on our guide's shirt. The Aboriginal people use this powder to put on their babies' faces to protect from sunburn. Our driver/guide is taking a sip of water because she wasn't wearing a fly net and one of those pesky flies flew down her throat while she was talking.
This is the bottom of the creek. There is no water as what there was dried up a long time ago.
This is a piece of dried wood that looks like a face.
The sheer face of the southern wall of King's Canyon.
If you look way up just under the farthest branch, you'll see a bridge that connects two rocks at the rim of the canyon. Walkers of the rim would have to cross that to go right around the rim.
We were told there are over one million camels in the Outback but other than those that were 'owned', we never saw one running around. We also never saw any of the millions of wild kangaroos running around. We did catch a glimpse of a wild horse while we were on our way from King's Canyon back to Alice Springs.
You may have noticed the red earth in many of the pictures. This is not red clay. It's caused by oxidation of the iron in the earth and in the rocks. The Outback is basically desert and it does not get much rain. The trees and plants that survive do so by sending down 'hunter roots' to look for artesian streams below the surface of the earth. The town of Alice Springs saw their annual rainfall in February, all of which fell in a matter of four days. The streams and rivers are now dry and it's incredible to be driving along and looking at the river bed where people were walking on it. It takes a special kind of person to live in the Outback and we know that we're not those special types!
