The 24 hour trip went fine.
I had booked a seat in the Red Class, the cheapest one, but the seats were
comfortable, there was lots of space for the legs and the Canadian guy seating
next to me asked for an upgrade and left, so the seat next to me became vacant
and I had plenty of room. I arrived in Alice Springs in the beginning of the
afternoon, it was very hot, and stayed at a quiet motel a bit outside the
centre and didn't do much. The next morning at 5:45 the tour bus picked me up
for my 3 days/2 nights trip to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and Kings
Canyon. The group was very small – just ten people including myself – and the
people and the 2 guides were friendly, so there was a nice atmosphere. And I
met Jiyian again, from China, whom I had met in Tasmania (so much has happened
since then that I have the impression that that was a longtime ago).
So at 6:30 we took the
450km road from Alice Springs to Uluru. This is a semi-arid region, which means
that it’s not completely dry, there is vegetation in the desert, even trees,
birds,…
I will never forget when I
first saw Uluru on the horizon, it is even more beautiful than I thought, it’s
magnificent. No words can describe it, I guess it’s just one of those things
that you have to see to understand. You can do a 10km walk around it but since
it was too hot we only did 5km. The Rock is surrounded by vegetation, there are
caves, even small waterholes where the birds – I saw kingfishers! – come to
drink. I was concerned that the walk would be in a rush, but we did stop in the
shadow a few times to enjoy the silence and quietness of the place – the only things
you hear are the birds and the wind. Uluru officially belongs to the Anangu,
the Aboriginal group who has lived here since ancient times, but has been
“leased” to the Australian Government for 99 years. Climbing the Rock is
allowed (and dangerous), much to the dismay of the Anangu, who request that you
do not do it, as for them – and some visitors – this is a sacred place. When I
asked our guides why climbing isn’t simply forbidden, they replied that the
Government is afraid that that could keep the tourists away (even though the
majority of tourists does not do the climb). As usual, money comes before
anything else, even sacredness. At the exit of the visitor centre in Uluru you
see the “Sorry book”. It is a collection of letters sent by people from all
over the world regretting that they climbed the mountain or took a piece of it
(a pebble, or some sand, whatever) back home – some of these people returned
their “souvenirs” with their letters, assuring that this had brought them bad
luck. Up to each visitor to believe these stories or not.
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Uluru |
When we returned to the bus
from our walk the motor wouldn’t start, for some reason the batteries were
flat, so we started thinking that we’d miss the sunset. Eventually some guy
stopped and fortunately he had jumpers and helped us out and we were able to
get to the lookout on time. Actually more beautiful than the sunset was the
moonrise! It was a red full moon, absolutely spectacular, but I couldn’t get a
good picture.
We slept at the campground
in Yulara, which is a tiny town not far from Uluru, the only place where you
can sleep in the area. We slept in swags in the open air but the“zillion stars”
promised by the tourism brochures were not there: the sky was too clear because
of the full moon (you can’t have everything!). I kept waking up every now and
then each time I heard a noise – I had been told that snakes here come out at
night, so each time I heard something I thought “Snake!”. But otherwise the
swag was actually comfortable and it was nice sleeping outside!
We got up at 4:00, this
time to watch… the sunrise J Meanwhile
another bus arrived sent by the tour company to replace the first one to avoid
surprises like the previous day. The sun rises to the East of Uluru and it’s
very, very beautiful indeed, only that you’re not alone – there are loads of
other visitors there to keep you company!
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| Sunrise |
After the sunrise we went
to Kata Tjuta, a group of enormous rocks in the middle of the desert. Walking
there – we did a 3 hour hike called Valley of the Winds – is even more
impressive than Uluru, I find. The mountains are very high and have a beautiful
ochre colour and the valley where you walk is green and full of life. That
night we had a campfire, some delicious food and I forgot about the snakes and
slept like a baby.
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Kata Tjuta |
The next morning we headed
to Kings Canyon, where we had another 3 hours walk. Again, the Canyon is far
from being a hostile place: besides being beautiful and spectacular in itself,
there are also plenty of trees, animals, and even a river flowing down the
valley. The views from the top are spectacular and getting close to the edge
will intimidate even those who don’t usually suffer from vertigo: if you fall,
you land 150m below. Apparently it has happened a couple of times, as well as
visitors having heart attacks or getting dehydrated during the walk.
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| Kings Canyon |
From Kings Canyon we drove
for quite a while until we reached a camel farm. I had no idea that Australia
had the largest population of camels in the world and even exports them to the
Middle East (Australian camels are free from diseases that affect their Middle
Eastern cousins). Australians also eat camel meat , just as they eat emus and
kangaroos. The camels arrived in the 19th century together with
migrants from Central Asia whom the Australians called “the Afghans”,
regardless of whether they were from Afghanistan or some other country. The
name of the train that crosses Australia from north to south – the Ghan – comes
from these migrants. Camels were vital for the explorers who travelled in
Central Australia in hostile conditions more than 100 years ago. They adapted
well to the Australian desert and today there are wild camels, as well as camel
farms, a bit everywhere.
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| Camel farm on the way back to Alice Springs |
On our return from the tour
we took a shower and met in a bar where there was a Halloween party going on.
After one month in Australia, I finally tasted Aussie beer, but I definitely
prefer their wines! I noticed something funny… At a certain point each of us
said how old he or she was and I realised that everybody was pretty young; with
the exception of a couple, I was the oldest in the group. Even one of the
guides, who was also at the party, was 7 years younger than me! It occurred to
me that it used to be the opposite;,I used to be among the youngest in
everything, but now this has changed and I even notice a small (and sometimes
not that small) generation gap sometimes… Suddenly I felt I’m getting older. So I ordered another beer.
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