I got back from my Great Barrier Reef and Whitsundays trip at 10:30 p.m. on June 7th, and had to leave for the airport for my Outback trip at 4:30 a.m. on June 8th. With that being said, by the time I got back, unpacked, procrastinated, uploaded pictures, and then repacked, I got an hour and a half of sleep the entire night. Even though I could have probably slept at the airport with those 6 hours, I was quite productive and needed to change out my clothes anyways since the weather and trips would be so different. Enjoy my adventures in the Outback!
Wednesday, June 8th:
Becca, George, Teddy (George's brother who came to visit for a month), and I took off from Sydney at 6:15 a.m., and then landed in Alice Springs (center of Australia) around 12 p.m. We had to switch planes because getting to the Outback is always tough. Only two airlines fly out to the Outback from Sydney, so trying to find plane tickets at the times you need is always tough. Although it was a long morning from not getting too much sleep, having the time to sleep the entire time on both airplanes made up for it. When we landed, I heard the pilot say the time it was in Alice Springs. I was very confused because it was 30 minutes behind the Sydney time. I checked my phone time, my alarm clock time, and my watch, and they all said the Sydney time. I asked someone working at the counter when I got off the plane about the time, and they said that from the west coast to the east coast of Australia is only a 2 hour time difference. So to break up the different regions, from the center of Australia to the east coast is behind 30 minutes. This made everything so confusing!
We went straight to our hostel once getting off the plane, and walked to the little town near our hostel for lunch. Since we were in the center of the Outback, there was not much around and not much civilization. The town of Alice Springs is not tiny, but it is also not very big at all. Teddy heard of a restaurant in the town that he said we had to go to because of the atmosphere. The restaurant was called Bojangles, and just by the name explains it all. It looked like an old saloon from back in the day with doors that swung open for the cowboys to enter. We sat down, and each ordered their famous cheeseburger, which was delicious. There were all different weird and unique things on the walls of the restaurant that were from the Outback. The atmosphere was great, and we got to sit back and relax while drinking beer which came with our meal. Here are pictures from Bojangles.
After lunch, we walked around the town for a bit, and then headed back to the hostel for a nap. Well, our short 30 minute nap turned into a 4 hour nap. We all woke up at 8 p.m. and went to a grocery store to get sandwich stuff for dinner since it was so late. That night, we watched some t.v., played cards, and then went to bed early since we had to wake up really early the next morning for our trip. Luckily, even though I napped for 4 hours, it was really easy to go to bed that night!
Thursday, June 9th:
My alarm went off at 4:50 a.m. instead of 5:20 a.m. this morning because I forgot to set my clock backwards before going to bed. Oops! Our tour left at 6:15 a.m., where we all loaded into these vans that we spent the entire trip in. There were 16 of us in a group plus a tour guide. The seats were quite uncomfortable, but that is the whole experience of doing a camping trip in the outback. Here is what our van looked like:
Once we all boarded the van, we drove about an hour away to a camel farm to start our journey. In the Outback, there are only a few roads, that are all completely straight the entire way. If you get on the road and realize you are not going the right way, you still have to keep going because there is no where to turn around. This is pretty much what our car rides consisted of looking at the entire time. It was not boring at all, because we saw so many different animals along the way.
We could pay and ride the camels, but none of us did it because it was raining. Our tour guide told us that at the camel farm there were different animals like a dingo. I was not sure what a dingo was, but everyone told me it was a wild dog. I was very confused by this concept for some reason, but then realized that dogs have been domesticated. Here is what it looked like:
There were also parrots and kangaroos there, but they were behind this huge cage so we could not pet them.
After the camel farm, the rain luckily stopped and we drove to the Uluru- Kata Tjuta National Park to walk around the grounds of Kata Tjuta. The land that is now the Uluru- Kata Tjuta National Park was created by the Aboriginal ancestors who in their travels left marks in the land and made laws for them to live by. These two places are the holiest places and most sacred for the Aboriginal people. We went to Kata Tjuta today and hiked around the site for a couple of hours. Kata Tjuta is also called Mount Olga, because of the formations of the rock. The walk we did was called the Valley of the Winds Walk, and was really beautiful. It got super windy halfway through our hike, but overall I enjoyed it a lot.
Valley of the Winds:
The black part running down the rock is sediment and rainwater that has made the
discoloration over time.
Full view of Kata Tjuta from the ground:
On our hike, we also so Euros, which are a breed of kangaroo. It was the first wild animal and kangaroo I saw in the Outback! The Euros jumped away before I could get a picture, but they were really cool to watch interacting in the wild. We also saw baby birds which were sitting on the ground, because I think they fell out from the nest.
After our hike, we drove out of the National Park and stopped on the way along the main road to gather some fire wood for our campfire that night. The guide knew of a good place to get wood from nearby trees, so we all got out of the van and yanked wood off of the trees and put it on top of the trailer. People were falling all over when the tree branches broke from pulling on them so hard. It was quite funny!
After gathering the wood, we drove back into the National Park and went to Uluru to watch the sunset! For those of you who may not know what Uluru (Ayers Rock) is, it is a large sandstone rock formation in the center of Australia. It is Australia's most recognizable natural icons, and is the huge rock you see on all of the Australian postcards and brochures. Uluru is the most sacred place for the Aboriginal people in the world. When we got to Uluru, we had about 20 minutes before sunset, so our tour guide brought crackers, dips, hummus, and champagne for all of us to enjoy while watching the sunset.
Here are pictures from the sunset, which was beautiful. It was a little cloudy, but the rock still stood out completely from everything else.
Before sunset:
Group Picture:
Becca and I:
George and I:
Uluru at Sunset:
After the sun went down, we drove to our campsite and started to cook dinner. I loved this trip and it was so unique from the other trips because we got to cook our meals every single day. We were put into groups, and what group you were in depended on if you were cooking dinner, cleaning up, starting the campfire, or just relaxing. For dinner that night, we had kangaroo, steak, camel sausages, and potatoes. Of course, I had to try everything because I am up for experiencing new things. The kangaroo actually had a nice taste to it because of the seasoning, but I could not bring myself to eating more than one piece of it. The camel sausages were actually really good, but I only had one bite because everytime I bit down, I had a picture of a camel in my head. Everything else was delicious, and we cooked everything on a BBQ, which was awesome.
That night, it was 32 degrees Fahrenheit outside. We were all freezing! Luckily, there was a campfire to keep us warm! We all sat around the campfire and told stories and stargazed.
Becca, Me, George, and Teddy
I cannot explain how beautiful the sky looked with all of the stars. The Outback is the best place in the world to stargaze because not only is it in the middle of nowhere with no lights, but since there is no ozone layer over Australia, the stars are so much brighter. I could have laid on my back for the entire night looking at the stars, but we had to wake up early the next morning to go see the Uluru sunrise. We were allowed to sleep in swags, which are thick sleeping bags with a mattress on the bottom. You sleep outside right under the stars with nothing over your head. The other option was to sleep in tents. The tents were nicer though than regular tents, with mattresses and somewhat of a bed. Here is what it looked our campsite looked like:
The Tents with the Fire Pit:
The Inside of the Tents:
The Kitchen:
The boys slept in the swags that night, but Becca and I decided to sleep in a tent because it was so cold. We said that the next night we would definitely sleep in swags under the stars for the experience. The day was perfect, and the trip was just beginning.
Friday, June 10th:
We woke up at 5:15 a.m. to it being freezing cold outside! The group had breakfast, and then we headed back to the Uluru- Kata Tjuta National Park to see the Uluru sunrise. We had a couple of options that we could do that morning. The first one was see Uluru at a distance like we did for the sunset, and only walk halfway around Uluru. The second was to walk the entire distance around Uluru (10.6 kilometers) and see Uluru up close during sunrise. The third one was to walk around Uluru for a bit, and then hike up Uluru. I decided against hiking up Uluru because we got a talk about how the Aboriginal people ask people to not climb Uluru because it is such a sacred place to them. If someone dies while hiking the rock, the Aboriginal people have to have a ceremony to cleanse the rock from their spirits. With that being said, I wanted to respect their religion and wishes, and knew it was not a good idea. A lot of people have died climbing the rock because it is so steep and the only way to get up is by pulling yourself up a metal chain. Here is what it looks like:
The 4 of us decided to the the entire walk around Uluru. We got to Uluru about 30 minutes before the sun rose, and this is what it looked like:
We started walking in the pitch black, and over time Uluru started to change color. As the sun rises, Uluru changes from being brown to a very dark reddish-orange color. This is when I had one of those "WOAH" moments again. As we were walking, the 4 of us had to stop and just stare at the rock. As the sun rose, the rock changed colors about 10 different times. It was absolutely beautiful to watch, and so amazing what Mother Nature can do. Here is a progression of pictures from the sun rising so you can see how many times the rock changed colors.
How amazing was that?!
The entire walk took about 2 hours, but we also stopped a lot to watch the sunrise and take pictures. Since the site is so sacred to these people, there are places throughout the loop that you are forbidden to take pictures. The Aboriginal people believe that if you take pictures, the spirits will go away and the site will not longer be sacred anymore. Throughout our walk, there were so many different formations on the walk and crevices from wind, rain, and lightening. It was such an amazing experience getting to see Uluru.
When we were done with our walk for the morning, we went to the cultural center for about an hour to learn more about the National Park. Once this was over, we went back to Uluru to go on an Aboriginal walk with an Aboriginal Woman. On this walk, she showed us all of the sacred places and told us about the history of the rock and why it is so important. There are so many different rituals that happen daily at the rock, and she wanted us to understand her culture. She did not speak English, but there was a translator to help her talk to us.
Leaf drawing to teach the young boys:
Drawings on Uluru:
Secret cove that only the boys can go into for their learning:
Only water source near Uluru that is from rain water. The people used to be able to drink it, but now it is really dirty:
Footprint that relates to one of their stories:
The Aboriginal leader that spoke with us:
Once the walk was over, we got to go back to the place we saw the sunset the night before to take pictures one last time.
I loved Uluru, and seeing it from sunset to sunrise was my favorite part of the entire trip. The walk was so peaceful and relaxing, that I enjoyed it tremendously.
After saying our goodbyes, we left and drove from Uluru to Kings Canyon, which was about a 4 hour drive away. We stopped a bunch of times on the way to see different things. As we were driving, my tour guide slammed on the brakes because there were wild camels! We got to get out and try to take pictures of them, but they were scared and ran away. Teddy and I decided to chase them, which obviously did not help :). I got a picture of them though, which was pretty cool because I have never seen wild camels before.
We also stopped at Mount Connor, which is a flat-topped and horseshoe-shaped rock, part of the same vast rocky substrate thought to be beneath Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Many people confuse it with Uluru because it kind of looks like it, but it is easy to tell apart because Mount Connor is flat on the top, while Uluru is not. It can be seen from the road to Uluru and Kata Tjuta, when approaching from Alice Springs. There is also a body of water near the rock, that we were able to see when we climbed up this huge hill to take pictures.
Body of Water:
We drove the rest of the way to Kings Canyon, but along the way saw so much wildlife! There were Wedge-Tail Eagles, more Euros, Camels, and Red Kangaroos! I could not keep my eyes off of the openness because I wanted to see the wildlife.
When we arrived to Kings Canyon, we were told that there is a mice infestation in the National Park where we were staying. Since it is in a National Park, they cannot set up traps and kill the mice. Literally, there were mice everywhere. I was on cooking duty that night, and wherever I looked, there were mice all on the floor and across the campsite. It was quite disgusting, but after about 10 minutes, I got over it because there was nothing we could do. For dinner, Teddy, George, Becca, and I made chicken stir fry, heated up the kangaroo meat, mashed potatoes, and bread (I was on the bread duty!). The dinner turned out great! That night, we sat around the campfire again and every once in a while, a mouse would jump on someone's lap. It was really funny, probably because it never happened to me. George, Teddy, Becca, and I slept in swags that night. I was in awe laying right under the stars being under millions of stars. I tried to stay up to watch the shooting stars, but being up since 5:15 a.m. that morning and then having to wake up at 5 a.m. the next morning was hard to do. The day was great, and I was starting to fall in love with the Outback!
Saturday, June 11th:
We woke up at 5 a.m., had breakfast, and packed up the entire campsite. We were going to Kings Canyon today to hike, which was about a 2 hour drive away from where our campsite was. The tour guide wanted to get there before the sun rose, which is why we woke up so early. Kings Canyon is part of Watarrka National Park, and is part of the gorge that is sacred to the Aboriginal people. We began to hike even before the sun came up, in which it was super cold. Even when the sun rose, the day was very chilly and windy.
Picture of the sunrise:
To begin the hike, we had to climb up these stairs for about 15 minutes to get to the top of the canyon. It was a bit difficult to do so early in the morning, but when we got to the top, it was a beautiful sight.
The Steps:
The Top of Kings Canyon Looking out into the Outback:
When we got to the top, we had a break and took some pictures. The view was beautiful because it was such a clear day with miles and miles of open land.
The valley of the gorge:
View from looking down:
The tour guide pointed out a ghost gum tree, in which an animal closely related to a koala lives. Unfortunately, there were none when we went, but the tour guide said they are rare to see. The tree can also be used as sunscreen, but wiping the branches on your body. The SPF is only about 4, but if you are desperate for protection, there you go!
There were a ton of these birds on our hike, which were not scared of people at all! They would walk around your feet and not be bothered by anyone or anything.
We went on another path for a while across a bridge and all the way down to the bottom of the canyon. There was water in the canyon, and when I walked down, I saw an alligator! I started to take pictures, and everyone started to laugh at me because it was fake. I then realized that how can a real alligator live in the middle of a canyon with nothing else but a little bit of water. OOPS! It did look very realistic though. Besides the alligator mishap, the reflection of the canyon off of the water was beautiful.
This looks real, right?!
All of the random rock formations were really cool to look at and take pictures of! When we got to the very top of Kings Canyon, the group took another group picture.
The tour guide said this tree is the oldest tree in the Outback, and possible Australia. They have done some carbon dating to come to this conclusion.
The hike was really fun and beautiful. We hiked for about 4 hours, which was the perfect amount of time. I thoroughly enjoyed hiking Kings Canyon, and especially happy I did it in the winter than in the summer. Even though it was about 40 degrees outside when we did it, in the summer, it can get up to 120 degrees! Here is a picture of the entire Kings Canyon from a distance:
After Kings Canyon, we left and ate lunch and relaxed on this grass field at a campsite near the canyon. After lunch, we headed back to Alice Springs because our trip was coming to an end. On the way back though, we stopped at these two famous signs and took pictures!
The car ride back to Alice Springs was about 5 hours from where we were in Kings Canyon. Waking up so early, I luckily slept most of the way. By the time we got back it was dark, where the 4 of us said our goodbyes to the friends we made in our group and went to check into our hostel. That night, we got dinner and hung out in our hostel with a few of the people from our trip.
Overall, the camping trip I did in the Outback was the best decision I could have made as far as traveling goes. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it since flying out to Alice Springs is so difficult, but everything was worth it 100%. Every single Australian I have talked to when I got back told me that not many people get to see Uluru or anything in the Outback, which is disappointing because it is the most famous place in Australia and the most important historically. Camping was the best way to get the full experience of being in the Outback, especially sleeping in swags. The 4 of us got along so well, and had a great time traveling together. Getting to see the sunrise over Uluru and see the rock change its color made the trip that much better. I would recommend going to the Outback to anyone, and really want to do the full Outback trip from Adelaide to Darwin (South Australia to North Australia) which takes about 10-12 days to do with sight seeing.
Sunday, June 12th:
We left for the airport around 9:30 a.m. for our flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne. When we got to the airport, we were told that the flight was delayed 2 hours, meaning we would miss our connecting flight from Melbourne to Sydney. They put us on a flight that was at 6:50 p.m., but there was also a flight at 5 p.m. if we could make it fast enough and if there was room on the plane. When we landed, the 4 of us rushed from getting off of our plane back through security to make the 5 p.m. plane ride. We had about 45 minutes to make it, so we definitely thought it was possible. When we got to the security line, there was an announcement over the loudspeaker telling the entire airport that every flight was canceled to the the volcanic ash from the volcano in Chile. Well, this is what happens when you travel, and sometimes you just have to deal with it.
We got into the correct line to see when we were able to take another flight out. The announcements kept saying that every airport was closed on the east coast of Australia, so the earliest we would probably be able to fly back was on that Tuesday. This was a bit of a problem for us because it was finals week, and I had a final on Wednesday I had to get back for along with George and Becca. Teddy was flying back to the United States on Tuesday afternoon from Sydney, so he had to get back as well. The 4 of us talked about our options, such as renting a car and driving the 12 hours up to Sydney, taking the train which takes 10 hours to Sydney, or taking a bus which takes about 12 hours to Sydney. The flight was way out of our hands and definitely not an option.
We left the airport with a refund from our plane ride to Sydney, got in a cab, and went straight to the train station. Luckily, we were one of the first people to get there because after a while the line was huge. There was a train out that night at 8 p.m., meaning we would get in Monday morning at 8 a.m. which would have been perfect. Unfortunately, it was sold out, so our only option was to spend the night in Melbourne, and take the 8:30 a.m. train back to Sydney Monday morning. We booked our train, and then called about 10 different hostels until we found one that had 4 beds for the night. As we were walking to dinner, there were a ton of night clubs, bars, and strip clubs along the street. We decided that we were going to make the best of our time in Melbourne and not have this damper ruin our night. The boys brought up the option (of course) to go to a strip club that night. That was when I said, "Lets go to a strip club tonight. It will be the first time I go, and the last. I have to experience it just once in my life."
That night was probably one of the most fun nights I have had in Australia going out. We went to not only 1, but 2 strip clubs and a bunch of awesome bars. Trust me, I thought the strip clubs were disgusting and very sad for these girls to have to dance for money, but at the same time it was entertaining with a few drinks in you.
Monday, June 13th:
We ended up getting 3 hours of sleep that night, and headed to the train station in the morning. As we were standing there at the train station, I noticed camera men and an anchor from a news station filming and they pointed over at the 4 of us. This was when one of the anchors walked up to me and asked if he could interview me. He asked me a bunch of questions like what did I do when I found out the planes were canceled, and was it hard getting a train ticket, and how much the train ticket was. Then, of course he had to ask me this question, and I had to be honest and respond.
Anchor: What did you do with those 12 hours last night since you were stuck in Melbourne?
Me: Um... you really do not want to know that.
Anchor: Yes I do, what did you do?
Me: Well, we got really drunk and went to strip clubs :)
Yes, Becca and I told the national Australia news what we did with our night out in Melbourne. Strips clubs and all. The anchor and cameraman immediately started to crack up, while George and Teddy were in the background covering their faces from embarrassment. The anchor said to check the news that night, or we could watch it online.
Well, our clip definitely got on the 6 p.m. news that night, telling all of Australia that we got drunk and went to strip clubs. All of my American friends here keep telling us, "Way to embarrass America." He asked, so we told :).
We ended up getting in 2 hours later than planned because of delays, but finally on Monday night around 9:30 p.m. were back in Sydney. It was a very long day, but those are the things that happen and you have to risk when traveling.
With a night out in Melbourne to end our trip, all I have to say were those past 6 days were awesome. I would do it over and over again, and definitely will have to make it back to the Outback in the future.
Heaps of Love,
Heidi
