The Red Rock!

Lorna with camel.
see all photos »

The tour we chose departed from Alice Springs at 6am - another early start, though at least we'd been to bed before this, this time! The first stop on the tour was at the Camel Farm, which housed several camels, alpacas, emu's, kangeroos, and a dingo. These were pretty much our first close up encounter with most of these animals on the tour so far! We declined the mini camel ride and boarded the 'tank' again for the (very) bumpy 4x4 ride across pretty rough outback roads! Kings Canyon was the first major stop-off of the journey, and we were overjoyed to hear that the first walk we would do was called "Heart attack hill"!! Not a bad description, as it turned out to be basically large rock steps that went nearly vertically upwards. I think the sign at the top said "well done, you have just climbed 100m upwards". It was 36 degrees too, that day and it was 1pm... Hot. The rest of the walk was (comparitavely) ok, with only a few hills and steps at the 'Garden of Eden' to negotiate.

Us at the rock!!
see all photos »

The campsite was situated in the 'bush' and was purely a swag under the stars. Us city dwellers were the target for some abuse from the guide (Jason) who boastfully claimed to spend around 280 nights a year sleeping outside! Well done him... fool... Anyway, we survived the night, although there was a scary moment when 4 of us saw a ghostly figure wandering through the campsite... It turned out to be 'Charles' - the French guy on the tour in his tight black budgie smugglers looking for a better place to sleep!

Kings Canyon - the fly net was VITAL!!
see all photos »

Waking at 5:30am, we were 'treated' to a mid morning snack of a Witchetty Grub. We were shown  how to find one and how best to eat it. Myself and Lorna gracefully declined the offer, though most others took it up. Tastes like nutty scrambled egg - apparently. A guy called michael had a go at digging one up, but most of us were more concerned with the massive amount of flies who had gathered to have a good feed (or whatever they do) in everyone's eyes, ears and nose! Onwards to Uluru, via Mt Connor (a flat topped rock formation left over from the ice age) and a huge salt plain.

Lorna (honest!) with a witchetty grub.
see all photos »

Whilst you can see Uluru from a long way off, it still becomes enthralling to just look at it for as long as possible. Despite the clouds around, you could really see the colours changing throughout the day as well as the plentiful imperfections of the rock that rarely show up on commercial photos. Also, the size of it cannot be brought across by mere photograph, either! We did the 9km base walk as a group (aside from two girls who saw it as an iron man race, and shot off at pace into the distance) in blistering heat and returned back to Ayers Rock camp for a shower before viewing the sunset. The sunset was a little disappointing, due to the clouds around, but the sunrise the following day was absolutely stunning! The changes in colour within such a short space of time was breathtaking and the smiling faces of the whole group showed that this was something special - the French in particular "fell in love" with the sight. The rest of the morning was taken up with a walk through Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) which was totally different in layout, though no less impressive, than Uluru. The climbs were steep, and the rocks were loose, so the challenge of this walk was perhaps the biggest, though luckily the heat of the day did not really hit us until the final half hour, or so. That afternoon was taken with driving the 5-6 hours back to Alice Springs. Overall, this was a great tour, with brilliant people and characters within the group. Perhaps we were lucky, as Lorna came into contact with several girls in the bathroom at camp in another group, who were applying very heavy make up at 5am!! We called these the FHM girls, as they even posed for photos as if it were a model shoot - Lorna disproved, though i found it mildy endeering...