The Australian Outback 2

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Day Four- Erlunda & Yulara

I woke today in a room all by myself, got ready for the day and immediately Danny tricked me and I ended up saying "it's not mine" when he asked who's phone was at the charging station! This game is stupid... now I have to sing to Chief!!

6am departure meant sunrise on the bus!

The sky turned a beautiful red orangie color that made me think of my morning in the Okawango delta in Botswana (http://andreatravelstoafrica.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/shall-never-forget-beautiful-botswana.html)

Harris' looking out the window

Then it was time to pick up some firewood and at this point I think we all just loved to stop in the middle of nowhere and hear Chief say "Firewood time!"... We always needed to get big logs that would burn better than skinny little branches and it was funny to see that some people did not get it... I really hope it is the language barrier what makes them not understand what is going on.

Since no cars are in sight (like.. EVER!) I get to go in the middle of the "highway" to take pictures!

The streets we drove were mostly empty (at least they were for the 5 seconds I opened my eyes between naps) and the scenery was always the same so I didn't feel bad or felt like I was missing much by sleeping 98% of the time in the bus. Some people actually went through a book or two, not me... I just slept... A LOT!

Most of the time we stopped I just opened my eyes, grabbed my camera, and got out of bus before realizing what was going on. This time we were at the Northern Territory sign and we decided to get a group shot (so happy to have brought my tripod with me!)

Tristan, "Bernie", "Hannai", "Anna", Hannah, Larisa, Carol, Joop, Danny, Sharon, Marie Therese, Florine, Con, Chief, "Harris", Sole, (Me), and on the top Mikel and Yuki

Then we reached Erldunda pretty much "the center of the center" of Australia, in other words... The middle of nowhere!

We stopped for lunch and while Chief was working hard at making our lunch we, and by we I mean 18 grown ups behaving like children, were having the time of our lives at the play structure having our own little olympics which included: longest jump from the swing, monkey bars, as well as coming down the slide and the fire pole!

Bernie's face shows pure joy!

Look at Harris go!

Tristan having a good time twisting the swing!

Oh! Oh! Will Hannah beat the record?!?!

After a good lunch we went back in the bus for a couple more hours of driving...

By 2 pm we reacher Curtin Spring... we are so close to Uluru!!!... and no, the rock we saw from Curtis Spring was not Uluru, it was Fooluru, a rock that many tourists confuse with Uluru!

The upside of Curtin Spring... there is no such thing as rush hour traffic! (or waiting for a pump!)

An hour after Curtin Spring Chief stopped the truck and we went for a tiny walk... through red sand... and right there we got our first glimpse of Uluru! (Which reminded me of -probably- my favorite country... Namibia, and walking in the Namib dessert http://andreatravelstoafrica.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/and-this-is-why-i-picked-namibia.html)

Before heading to Uluru we went to our camp site for the next two nights... pretty fancy (we even had a lamp inside the tent!)

By the camp site there was a view spot so a couple of us went to check out the view of Uluru from there

There are actually 4 camels walking by Uluru in this picture!

View of Kata Tjuta

Then we all headed to Uluru for sunset!!!

We all got out of the truck and Chief started to set up a table with champagne, crackers, and dip to enjoy the beautiful sunset... What a nice touch to make this evening even more memorable!

A group picture... Of Course!

The sky was orange on one side and on the other side there was "the Rock" and then for about a minute the sunlight hit the Rock and it turned into a beautiful bright red and it was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful! I just felt so lucky to be here witnessing yet another beauty of the world!

Tristan pointing at the BEAUTIFUL sunset behind us!

How beautiful is this?!?!

The sunset was BEAUTIFUL... a mix of pink, orange, purple, and red... just astonishing!!!

At camp the group has come together and we have formed a pretty nice group, we are now playing games and laughing together every night. Tonight's favorite game was "I went to the store and bought..." It's a drinking game where each person has to say a word following the order of the alphabet and repeating every word said before their turn. This sounds like a pretty easy game but pair it with 10 people whose first language is not english and you get a night full of laughter! I think we all specially enjoyed listening to Tristan say "Ha-pple", and "HE-cho and the Bunnyman CD"

The nights are full of laughter and these are probably the memories that I will cherish forever!

... home for the next two nights:

Day five- Uluru and Kata Tjuta

Wake up time today was 5am so we could catch the Sunrise at Uluru, the biggest single rock in the world!

The sunrise kind of didn't happen but we got to see when some of the sun rays hit the rock and created some beautiful colors.

We were dropped off by Chief at the bottom of Uluru and he gave us three hours to walk around the rock and should meet him at the end by 9am.

We thought it would be no problem to do the 6km (or 9km, I can't remember) in 3 hours but actually we almost didn't make it. Of course it took a gazilion pictures and I went off the path to get a "perfect shot"; I really took my time and enjoyed the walk and the view.

This one looks like a skull

Playing with panorama

I call this one the Lorax!

We reached our meeting point exactly at 9am and Chief had a table with fruit and cookies for us... how nice! haha

While we were eating Chief said that Danny, Joop, and Annaik had gone for a 2nd round around Uluru, this time RUNNING! ... what overachievers! haha

Uluru is a sacred place for the aboriginals but they still allow people to climb it. Last night Chief gave us a lecture about the place and what the climbing means to the aboriginal people. He said that they do not want to stop tourists from doing so but instead they want us to chose not to climb it out of respect for their culture! Anyway, is not like I was planning to!

After 3 hours of walking on our own we went on a Walk with an aboriginal guide that shared a little bit more about the aboriginal culture and how Uluru used to be.

In the aboriginal culture the grandparents were in charge of raising the children and teaching them the stories from their ancestors and also teaching them about life in Uluru.

We visited 3 types of caves: the teaching cave, the men's cave and the women's cave.

The teaching cave

During the rainy season this becomes a waterfall!!!

Then we went to the cultural center and showed how Uluru was taken from the aboriginals and made into this huge tourist attraction. It made me feel really bad how the land was taken from the aboriginals by white people and they were displaced from their land of origin for us to come and visit it. In the video one aboriginal person said "we became objects to be photographed", it is really sad to watch the video and know the story behind it.

Hopefully now they are getting something in return with all the tourism that is coming to Uluru.

In the afternoon we went for a walk to Kata Tjuta aka The Olgas

The night at camp was so much fun! The drinking games are evolving and getting funnier and funnier, especially when it involves Tristan's French accent, Mikel's hilarious comments, Sharon's crazy ideas and amazing rules such as making Danny drink every time somebody else has to drink or having the rule of saying "consume" instead of "drink" and if you don't... you have to consume! haha

Day 6- King's Canyon

Spent most of the morning in the bus traveling from Yulara to King's canyon. Stopped for lunch and the went on our biggest hike ever!!!

I get very anxious about hiking or anything that is too physically demanding just because I'm not very good at it. Chief explained that we would have a very steep 300m start and that made me start worrying. I don't know if it is because I want to be "perfect" at everything and knowing that I can't perform well gives me anxiety and it's easier for me not to do it and that way avoid any type of failure.

When we arrived at King's canyon I was a little nervous and then I saw tiny people climbing the huge hill and I thought I couldn't do it and that I should tell Chief that I didn't want to do it. Then I thought about it... In reality there is nothing I can't do, and the only thing that prevents me from doing things is my mind and all the negative thoughts that come through it. Plus, probably Chief would have said "toughen up Princess" and I would also miss out on Chief's favorite hike (which means that it most be amazing!)

I started thinking of hiking Table Mountain, and how about that four day hike up to Macchu Pichu?! I enjoyed both of them so 300m uphill should be alright plus I have to remember that it is not a race, I can go at my own pace and enjoy the view. Chief also reminded us to take it easy, do it at your pace and I loved when he said something like "take as many breaks as you want and look down to see how far you have come instead of looking up and see how much more you have to go".. Thanks Chief! I'm ready!!!

The hike took 3 1/2 hours and I am so glad I went! The 300m uphill were Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy and the views were beyond amazing!

The group stayed together as much as we could, everybody was conscious of the people at the back and would take rests to wait for Chief and the others.

One of the older ladies was taking it very slowly and I decided to stay with her and Florine, both french, just in case of an emergency. They are both french and their english was very limited so it was an opportunity for me to practice my french and just for caution because if anything happened I could communicate with them then go get Chief and not have to leave one person on their own. This worked to my advantage because it gave me plenty of time to enjoy the scenery as well as to take pictures.

After the hike we reached our last campsite of the trip; we all took well deserved showers and gathered around the fire for our last night together. Of course, we spent most of the time playing games and having fun.

Playing games!!

For dinner Chief went all out.. he made a delicious vegetable curry and a chicken curry... and for dessert: apple crumble by the fire

Chief cooking

The curry!!!!!

Sadly it was our last night :( but we had a lot of fun by the fire just chatting and playing more games!

Day 7- On our way to Alice Springs!

The day started with a quick flat walk in King's Canyon.

And then we stopped by a meteorite site that Con wanted to see:

On our way to Alice Springs we stopped by a Camel Farm where some people got to ride Camels. I skipped it since I had enough from a Camel ride in India almost two years ago (http://andreaisinindia.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/camel-ride.html) but I was more than happy to take pictures for others:

I think it took them by surprise when the camel went down!

They also had some other animals

An Emu!

A sleeping Dingo!

Finally we reached our final destination... Alice Springs! where we (of course) needed our last group photo!

Now the tour is sadly over but the memories I created and the people I met will come with me throughout my journey!

Now.. off to Perth to see Neil and Kate for 5 days!!! <3

About Post Author

Andrea

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!