Ayers Rock was awesome. The whole experience was a bit different than I had expected. I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but showers and crowded campgrounds weren't it. I was quite surprised (pleasantly?...maybe) to find that the camps we stayed at had showers and heaps of fresh water. I was also quite surprised (not so pleasantly) to find that our group was made up of quite a few people who were not accustomed to roughing it, not that I would really call what we were doing "roughing it." Despite that, we had a decent group, one American in addition to us, heaps of Germans, none of whom had actually come together, a trio from Denmark, an Italian, an Englishman, our Aussie tourguide and a Korean couple who came to be affectionately known as the honeymooners as they were on one of the last legs of their year-long honeymoon that had covered pretty much every country one can think of. After being in the cool, crisp air of Sydney and the Blue Mountains, the hot, dry air of Uluru was intense. But so were the colours of the red earth, yellow grass, green shrubs and blue sky.
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| Uluru |
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| Uluru |
We walked around Uluru (which according to the natives you really shouldn't climb because of its spiritual meaning), through Kata Tjuta (where we temporarily lost the honeymooners), and through King's Canyon over the three days we were there. We climbed up and down, learned about the geology and native history of the places, swam in a watering hole and watched the sun rise and set. We saw camels and emus and heaps of other critters before setting off on a long drive on our final day to the small town of Alice Springs. We spent just one night in Alice Springs, long enough to have dinner with our group and hear stories of Australia and the Outback from our tourguide, before heading to Perth, the final stop in my epic.
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| Kata Tjuta |
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| Kata Tjuta |
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| Kings Canyon |
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