Super Fly

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On the 18th November the C Team landed in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. It's almost in the centre of Australia and surrounded by desert. And it was hot, hotter than anywhere we'd been before. And dry. Perfect beer drinking weather, which is why Territorians have the reputation as Australia's best beer drinkers. Hurrah.

We got a room in a smashing little place called Alice's Secret (with a pool), had a reviving & refreshing beverage and sorted out hiring a car & camping equipment for a three day drive around the sights - cross terrain outback survival adventure style, where's the swiss army knife & can we hunt kangaroo. Then off for a quick look round Alice Springs town. It was four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon but the town was deserted - most of the shops were shut and the streets were empty apart from a few aboriginal guys and gells selling paintings or having a drink. We wish we'd bought a painting, they were pretty good and we'd find loads of similar ones in Darwin for alot more money.

Next day we started off early in our Toyota Corolla estate (Wot No Subaru? Gutted), kitted out with a double swag bag, cooking stuff & eskie full of booze and meat. We were heading for the Kings Canyon, Uluru and the Olgas, a round trip of about 1,500 km. About 200 km from Alice Springs we realised that the air con didn't work properly, but drove on regardless with frost bitten toes and eyebrows slipping from our sweaty foreheads. We saw an enormous number of kangaroos along the Stuart Highway, easily over 100, and all road kill. We even saw a road kill camel. Or Australian speed hump.

We were heading for the King's Canyon first on the advice of Simon and Renata, a couple we'd met in Bolivia. Apparently the trail around the top of the canyon is stunning, but we'd also been warned that the rangers shut the walk by eleven o'clock if temperatures are forecast to rise above 36 degrees. We got there at eleven and the temperature was a fraction under 45 degrees in the shade. And the hottest part of the day is around two o'clock. So we didn't do the walk, we decide to amble the shady half hour path at the bottom of the canyon instead. Which was nice, but bastard hot. And full of flies. We had to get our fly proof onion bags out and wear them over our heads.

Jumping back in the Trusty Toyota and escaping the flies we decided to get to the camping grounds at Uluru before dark. There's a massive resort type complex at the rock, with nice hotels, shops, showers, barbecue areas and a pool - which takes a little bit of the outback survival element out of the whole thing. But fuck it, the pool was lovely. After a refreshing beer and dip combo we barbecued some cracking slabs of meat and stretched out under the stars on our swag bag. Beautiful.

There's alot of stuff that moves around in the dark out in the bush. Jimmy wouldn't like it.

Next morning we headed out to the Olgas, some massive rocks near Uluru. Instead of being one whole rock these are made up of lots of smaller rocks bound together with clay. A bit like reddish, enormous pebble-dashed .... pebbles. Very nice, especially the breeze although it does become quite hot by midday. And it doesn't keep the bastard flies away.

From the Olgas we drove back to the camp site and wallowed in the pool eating ice cream, waiting for the day to cool down a little and avoiding the flies. Urrgghhhh - they drive you mental. Around three'ish we headed out to have a look at Uluru. It was still really hot but we thought it would get cooler so we had a crack at walking round it.

Uluru is quite stunning. It's one massive red rock in the middle of the desert, and has that big presence that only a massive thing in a flat landscape can have. The Aborigines regard it as a sacred site and ask that people don't climb it or go to certain parts of it, so it's a shame to see that tourists can still climb up to the top if they want to (although it was shut when we went because it was so hot). Whether you think it's spiritual or colossal, it's definitely awesome.

Halfway round we came across a couple of really old aboriginal women and a ranger. We sat down with them and had a chat - they laughed quite a lot at our fly nets and red faces. They were really cool, and told us some stuff about the old days. Probably. And that we should walk around the rock at night if we didn't want to get hot (but we wouldn't see anything). Anyway, they were very nice and we enjoyed meeting them.

Later we saw the sun set on Uluru with alot of other people from a special viewing point. It was bollocks.

Another lovely barbecued plate of meat and wonderful starry night later, we headed to a special sun rise spot to see the sun come up onto Uluru. It was okay, the colours are quite nice but the bus loads of tourists take a little bit of the magic away. So we hit the long and dusty road back to Alice springs, stopping on the way to visit the singing dingo. Who wasn't in.

One last night at Alice Springs and then off to Darwin for Suicide Season.