Postcards form a Backpacker

Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Posted in Pacific, Australia, Alice Springs

Flying into Alice Springs from the airplane window we were able to see why the red centre is so called. Alice Springs was originally a telephone repeater station and has now become the gateway to Uluru. “The Alice” as it’s known, is a small town in the centre of the country with a few thousand residents. It’s a passing through kind of place where the tourists don’t hang around for more than a few days. The town seems to have a bit of a problem with drunken Aborigines that makes walking about parts of the town off putting, and not very safe to walk about on your own after dark. We stayed at Toddy’s backpackers resort, they kept us waiting at the airport for ages before coming to pick us up, but when we finally arrived we had a twin room and got some sleep before joining our tour early the next morning. I had booked a 3 day tour with Adventure Tours Australia who picked us up the following morning. That morning we set off for Uluru (Ayers Rock) stopping at one of the many camel farms where you could ride a camel around a circular track for A$5. We arrived at the permanent campsite for lunch from where we set out to explore the Kata Tjuta (Olgas), and hike the Valley of the Winds. We returned to watch the desert sun set over Uluru (Ayers Rock), the sun set was great but the low cloud did not make the colour changes in the rock all that spectacular. We were given sparkling wine and nibbles to enjoy as the sun set.

An early start was required for what was supposed to be the highlight of the tour – the Uluru sunrise. Again it was not as spectacular as I were led to believe, although the rock itself was impressive. We watched the sunrise from the official spot then I decided (against Aboriginal advise), to climb the rock. It’s a lot steeper and taller than it looks from the photos. The climb is slippery and steep and is regularly closed to the public. This morning it was open and I climbed about two thirds of the way up, pulling myself up by the chains before turning about face and heading back down. I had a good view from the spot I got to but also wanted to see the Aboriginal art sites around the base walk. By not climbing all the way to the top I had a chance to do a bit of both. The last thing we did that morning was to visit the Cultural Centre. After lunch, we departed for Kings Canyon and our overnight camp a long drive but a good oven fire dinner and the chance to sleep outside under the stars in a Swag, a canvas covered mattress with zips down either side to keep you protected in your sleeping bag.

The third day my legs were aching from the climb the previous day but there was no time to rest as it was another early start to climb King’s Canyon and see the “Garden of Eden”. After the three hour walk the morning sun was getting hot in the clear blue skies and an ice cream was a welcome reward when we arrived back at the coach park. After lunch we had another long five hour drive back to Alice Springs, that night we declined dinner with some of the others in our group who were continuing on to Darwin and had dinner in Bojangles Saloon, where both my sister and I had a mixed grill of Camel, Kangaroo, Buffalo and Crocodile and a beer in true outback style.

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