A Magical Week in the Red Centre!

Hello from a sunny Sydney!!! How cool is that!! Im still really excited to be here and arrived on Friday evening!

Had an amazing week in the outback, probably the best experience of my whole trip so far, it was just everything i had hoped it to be and more! It was shattering though, the trip was 6 days, and we got up at 4am everyday bar one, to see the sun rise, but was sooo worth it, but has meant a couple of lazy mornings here so far!

I dont even know where to start, we saw so much and a lot of it was so different to what i expected. So its probably easier if i do it by days, so here we go:-

Day 1 - we left Adelaide and drove 885km up the Stuart Highway (this highwat goes all the way from Port Augustas to Darwin!!) to Coober Pedy, arriving at 6.30pm, having left at 6.30am and just driven ALL day! Apart from a couple of toilet stops and an hour for lunch, we just drove and drove and drove, and its not like NZ where there is something to look at, its just desert, thats it. Nothing to see, nothing to do and boy was i pleased when that journey was over!! It was like being in Star Wars, and living on Tatoween!! Very Cool, but after a while the amusement wore off!

For those of you who dont know, Coober Pedy (CP) is the Opal capital of the world and they all live underground there! Its a cross between teh flinstones and star wars again. This is the first settlement you come accross since Port Augustas, about 700km south and the nearest thing north is Alice Springs probably about another 1,000km, so its quite remote and all a bit wierd! Everything is underground, including the church, as in the summer it can reach 61 degrees!!! We stayed in a cave too, which was pretty cool and then had DAY 2 to explore here as well. You didnt really need longer than a day, but we got some pretty good photos, had a tour of a mock cave home and learnt about all the mining techniques, which the people of CP have devised themselves....they use explosives quite a lot and up until 9/11 you could go into the supermarket and buy them over the counter, lol! now you need a permit, but people often get their cars blown up in the town, as pranks....wierd!!

On our Day 3 which was 8/12/08 we met up with our next group who we would be with for the rest of our trip. We had a great guide, Pip, who was a very good Kylie look a like, her knowledge was amazing and it makes such a difference when you get a good guide! The fact that she was only a year older than us was quite scary, as i wouldnt have known how to change a tyre in the middle of the outback!! So we left CP and watched the sunrise of the opal mines, it was really amazing, got some great pics from the highway and that road is just so quiet, you can lay in it and watch the sunrise!! We spent all day again driving to Uluru (ayres rock) Left at 5am and didnt get to camp until 9pm, plus we gained an hour in time crossing into the Northern Territory border...got a flat tyre and drove through some terrential rain...it has to be the longest day ever!! By the time we ate and set up camp we had been up 21 hours and then had to get up at 4am the next day!!! Crazy stuff!! We did break up our third day at a Aboriginal Village, to look at an arts centre there, which an english lady has set up. The Aboriginal people are actually quite scary, they dont speak english and can get very violent, especially when they are drunk (we saw this in Alice Springs) but the art work was really interesting as they all tell stories, i wish i could have got something, as all the money raised supports the community, but its just how would you get it home!!!

We spent the next two nights at Yulara, the camp just outside Ayres Rock National Park. We slept in sways, which was really good fun, basically just a waterproof sleeping bag, you could go to sleep and watch the stars, it was amazing, and sooo hot!! Thankfully we survived all three nights, with no snake or spide dramas! I think i was the only one in the whole group not to get a mozzi bite (very proud) and the only thing i saw that was vaguely alarming was a massive lizard, that should belong in a zoo with the spider in Fiji!! I was just reading my book sitting on the grass, looked up and it was there!!! Thankfully it got scared by the music and waddled away!! Sway sleeping is def the way forward!! although im not sure it would work for Glasto, as you would probably get washed away!!

So Day 4 we watched the sunrise from Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) and had a distant view of Uluru. It was beautiful. By 6am we had already started our 7.4km walk around the Valley of the Winds, to beat the morning sun. It was a really good walk, The Olgas are made up of about 50 rocks, where as Uluru is obviously just one, but they are in the same National Park. we saw our first wild kangaroo and there was also a waterfall there, which is VERY rare!! They have had a lot of rain in this region over the past two weeks, we got washed out on our last day at Kings Canyon, but it meant the desert was a luscious green, not many people can say they have seen it like this. We then visited the Uluru Aboriginal Centre and learnt about how the Aboriginal people use Uluru in their teachings. We had the afternoon free to recover and chill by the pool, which was much needed and then we watch the sunset over Uluru which has to be the highlight of the trip for me! It was magical. Massive black thunder clouds, but no rain, just lightening in the background, a rainbow over the rock and the sun seeping through in the background. We had pre dinner snacks and just had an amazing evening.

day 5 - up at 4 again and this time it was sunrise right at the base of Uluru. The traditional sunrise viewing area is a very sacred sight for the aboriginal people and they dont like people taking pictures from this angle. We walked around the base of Uluru (roughly 9km) and certain parts you cant take pictures because these are sacred spots. I respected this wish, as i felt a really strong presence there. Its not just a rock to me anymore, it is so much more. When you are that close, they are so many different holes and patters and scars and if you let your imagination go a bit, they can all tell a story and you can see different patterns. It was very different to what i expected and i really felt trapped in a spell almost as we walked around. Pip then took us on a story telling walk around one section of the rock. There are four aboriginal stories that they use to teach morals to their children and they all relate to animals. You can see the different animals marks (foot prints, snake lines etc) in the rock when you are up close. On this day we had a cool front of 30degrees, but with a bus with broken air con it felt more like 50!!!

on this afternoon we made our way to Kings Canyon, where we camped on our final night. on the way we passed through a very impressive dust storm and despite being a wash out for the past two weeks we had a dry night, although on the last part of our canyon walk the next day we did get glastonbury style soaked!!!! It was a 5.5km walk up and along the canyon rim...you could see the storm coming for miles. We spent some time at the Garden of Eden swimming in the rock pool. Again, there is not normally any water to swim in, so that was pretty cool to!

After the walk we made our way back to Alice Springs. Another whole day of driving really, although they days feel a lot longer when you get up at 4!! It was a 7 1/2 hour drive (are you getting an idea of the vastness now!!!) and by the time we got to Alice i was completly shattered! But washing needed to be done etc! Didnt really see anything of Alice, just a quick wonder to the supermarket and we left early the next morning to make our way to here, as we had to fly via Adelaide. But dont think i missed anything really!

All in all it was a fantastic trip, i hope this gives you some idea. It will be a lot easier when im back and have the pictures to explain alongside the writing!

So now its monday morning in Sydney, and Jen has just gone to the airport to meet her friend Nicky who has come out from home to spend the next 3 and a bit weeks with us. This afternoon im getting the ferry over to Manly to spend a couple of days on the beach and they are joining me tomorrow.

Sydeny is really great, loving it already, just trying to decide what to do for NYE, but there seems to be plenty of options. Christmas Carols in the park next saturday, which should be fun! Have forgotten about Christmas really, but getting more in the festive spirit now, and really looking forward to it!

Anyway, best go!! hope all is well with everybody!

Ellen xxxxx