Outback Adventure

We touched down at Ayer’s Rock Airport early in the afternoon. The big red rock already visible in the distance. A bearded fellow named Craig, who had an uncanny resemblance to Allen from the Hang over movies, came to pick us (me and my parents) up. It was the kick off of the 3 day/2 night tour of the Australian ‘red center’.

A big 25 passenger truck fit for some off road adventuring was our mode of transport for the coming days. We drove back to ‘camp’ first to have lunch, a lovely Camel burger, before we headed out into the National park.

This first day we got treated to a very special event in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National park. We were lucky to be able to count ourselves to the 2% of the visitors that get rained on in the national park. Craig was really pleased with that. “I love rain”, he would say in his typical dry tone of voice.

We visited the Cultural center first where we could learn about the Aboriginal Culture and their ‘dreamtime’. Which entails their stories of creation, past, present, future, how the land and animals interact with them and how they should interact with the land and the animals. It was very interesting and really showed how complex their culture and beliefs are. And also how little they have shared, which they are not allowed to according to their laws, of their 40,000 year old culture. Which is the longest still existing and practiced culture in the world.

As the rain let up a bit and Uluru (the real name of Ayer’s rock) in the background we drove to Kata Tjuta, also known as the Olgas. Basalt and granite held together by mud rock form these enormous rocks. We explored a naturally formed valley (Walpa Gorge) that acted like a wind tunnel. It started raining again too, so our first scenic experience was different and nothing like what you would expect visiting the desert center of Australia.

Next was the sunset viewing of Uluru, also referred to as ‘the rock’. There is a designated sunset viewing area and we were not the only tourists there. Busloads of them (us). We did manage to obtain a ‘private’ spot and watched the sun go down while enjoying a glass of bubbly. Unfortunately the sunset wasn’t that awe inspiring as you can see on all the postcards and TV shows. The rain clouds hade made sure of that. It was still very pleasant. After sunset we went back to camp, had dinner and retired in our tents to get ready for an early start. The sunrise viewing of Uluru was on the menu and for that we had to get up at 4.45am. good times!

Day morning of day 2 was all about Uluru. The sunset viewing was great. Although there were some clouds it was amazing to see the morning sun bouncing of the big red rock. It accentuated its curves, ripples and other shapes formed by thousands of years of erosion by wind and rain. It was time for a closer look at the rock and we did a base walk around half of it. I found it absolutely beautiful walking around this enormous sandstone structure. Uluru is 380 mtrs high and about 6 km deep. It really is like an ice berg in the desert of which we can only see the top. On the south side is a waterhole, called the Mutitjulu waterhole, which has significant meaning in the Aboriginal creation story of Uluru and is a cool, serene oasis I the otherwise scorching desert.

It is also possible to climb Uluru. The aboriginal people ask you not to since this is a very sacred place to them, but they can only ask. Unfortunately they don’t have any control over their own land or sacred places. This is in the hands of the Australian government and they apparently find the tourists wishes (and money) more important than respecting the culture of the original custodians of this land. And also unfortunately a lot of tourists don’t have the decency to respect their request and still go up. It’s like climbing the Aboriginal ‘Sistine chapel’, ridiculous.

The annoyance was visible in Vincent, our Aboriginal guide for the second part of the morning. He told us about his culture and the dreamtime story of Uluru. In the Aboriginal culture there are stories for men, women and children. No one will hear the others story, since it is not for them. So we listened to the story for children. We are not initiated in their culture so in their eyes we are children. It was very interesting hearing Vincent talk about his background and the story of Uluru. He drew typical Aboriginal markings in the sand while he thought his story and thus making sense to some of the ancient ‘rock art’ that is to be found on certain spots around the rock.

It was a very interesting but also eye opening and a bit shocking experience. I learned a lot about the Aboriginal culture and how they perceive the world, but also that they are still regarded as second class citizens. They have citizenship, but not the same rights as other Australians. Some communities live in 3^rd world conditions and that in a country that has the 2^nd highest living standard in the world. You don’t hear a lot about these problems or the still quite racist approach of ‘white’ Australians towards their Aboriginal countryman. I think it is a very sad thing and hope it will change for the better soon, although I fear that still might take a long time.

The rest of the day we spent in the bus driving to Kings Canyon, which was about a 3 hour drive. The tour we did were 2 tours combined so from the 22 people we started with only 12 were left. Which meant ample room in bus.

We arrived in Kings Canyon around 5 pm and had the rest of the day off. Instead of sleeping in a tent most of decided to spent the night in a ‘swag’. A swag is an Australian contraption. I is a little matrass inside a canvas cover. You put your own sleeping bag inside and voila your bed is made. Sleeping outside underneath the starry sky was in my opinion by far the best thing of the entire trip. There is no artificial light at all, so you can see everything. And I mean everything! After the moon was gone, which was very bright all the stars in the universe were available to you. It wasn’t even dark, the amount of stars gave off enough light for you to see clearly in the middle of the night. All the billions of stars too far to see as individual stars form this ‘stardust’ that filled every little black spot in between our ‘own’ stars. The entire Milkyway just unfolds right above you, visible with the naked eye. I saw satellites flying past and about 7 shooting stars throughout the night. Absolutely amazing. The barking of the wild dingoes in the distance topped off this beautiful outback experience.

Once again it was rise and shine early in the morning. At 5.50am we left the campsite to see the sun rise over Kings Canyon. Another reason was to beat the heat, since we had a 3.5 hour walk ahead of us. The temperature reached 36 degrees centigrade at around 11am and you don’t want to be caught in the burning sun in a rocky gorge.

Kings Canyon is a sight for sore eyes. Cliffs, gorges, slabs and domes of beautiful red sandstone. The sandstone is actually white, but the iron inside corrodes due to the weather and colors the outside red. Craig explained a lot about how the Canyon came about and pointed out local flora and told it what it was used for. I don’t remember what he said precisely so I won’t try to repeat it since I’ll probably be wrong.

In the middle of the arid canyon is a beautiful oasis called ‘The garden of Eden’. Tall Ghost gum trees and old palm like trees surrounded a little pond. Heaps of little frogs hopped around as we took a break and took in the unexpected beauty of this remarkable place. Some of these palm like trees are of a species that existed when the center of Australia was covered in tropical rainforest about 300 million years ago. One of the trees there was estimated to be 500 years old. About 100 million years ago huge inland seas covered the center of Australia and evidence of that was still visible in the rocks we walked on. The ripples you see in the sand of the ocean floor where fossilized on the canyon floor and even the footprint of an ancient ‘sea cucumber’ was still visible.

As we climbed out of the Garden of Eden you have an amazing view of the top of the canyon. All the red sandstone ‘domes’ look like giant termite hills and carried as far as the eye could see. We left those behind us as we descended back to the valley floor and the bus. The tour had come to an end the only thing that we had to do was the 5 hour drive back to Alice Springs. And this also added to the outback adventure. The scenery changes quite a bit and the long drive really helps you grasp the vastness of the country. Alice Springs is relatively ‘close’ to Kings Canyon and still a 5 hour drive. Despite of the time it was a very pleasant drive. In Alice Springs we said goodbye to our awesome guide Craig and checked into a hostel for 1 night before flying to Melbourne for the next adventure of our trip, which will be exploring Australia in a motorhome.