Gosh, the past two weeks have fa-LOWN by! Two Fridays ago I got up super early and headed to the airport with Krista and Melissa (two other Americans I’ve met here), as well as Andrew, who was flying home for the weekend. Krista’s staying with a family and the mom is an angel and gave us a ride, so we saved heaps on a taxi fare – a great way to start our trip! We were bound for Alice Springs (via Cairns, which is right on the Great Barrier Reef – landing at that airport was breathtaking!), a famous town quite literally in the middle of the country, and therefore quite literally in the middle of nowhere. I had been warned to expect some culture shock, and Alice is definitely different from Brisbane in a lot of ways! Most noticeably, there were a lot of Aborigines, which you never see in the city. (Just for context, the story of Australia’s Aboriginal people is eerily similar to that of our Native Americans – lots of cruelty and taking of land and children, alcoholism, poverty, etc.) There was also lots of red dirt, an iconic component to the outback, and heaps of flies.
Not sure what I thought I was doing with my hands, but we deemed it our "Aussie thumbs up!"
Landing in Cairns
We checked into our hostel and spent the afternoon perusing the shops around town. There was so much Aboriginal art, I would have loved to buy a painting but they're super expensive! The rest of the evening consisted of naps, $5 dinner at the hostel’s bar, and really great conversation! Then it was off to bed for our early start the next morning. I believe there were 18 tourists on our trip (representing France, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Taiwan, South Korea, and Germany, plus we Americans and our Australian tour guide, Heath – yet another ridiculously attractive guide to add to the list!), and we all piled into our bus at 6am for a four hour drive to King’s Canyon. It was a flawless spring day as we set out for our 6km/four hour hike, which started with a trek up “Heart Attack Hill” – I’ll let you guess how fun that was. But the view at the top was so much more than worth it.
Heath!
Heading up "Heart Attack Hill"
Every now and then we would stop so that Heath could tell us about the rock formations (one was in the Australian film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert!), trees, and even some Aboriginal art we stumbled across (literally, stumbled – we had to climb over all kinds of unstable rocks to get to it, and I’m clumsy to begin with!). The scenery at King’s Canyon was amazing; everything was either blue, green, or red.
Garden of Eden
Aboriginal art - they would put ochre in their mouths and spit around their hands to make those outlines!
After our hike we stopped to collect some firewood then headed to our campsite, which was more like a patch of red dirt in the middle of NOWEHERE. I’ve never even been camping in a tent, so eating around a fire and sleeping in a swag (like a canvas bed roll) and sleeping bag under the stars was an incredible experience! Despite the chilly temperature (about 8 degrees Celsius, or 46 degrees Fahrenheit), we got to fall asleep to the most spectacular display of stars I have ever seen anywhere, so I got over my cold nose!
Swags!
The next morning we got up at 5:15, ate breakfast while the sun rose over the outback, then headed off to Kata Tjuta (or the Olgas), another amazing rock formation made up of 36 red domes. It was still chilly (or as Heath would say, “Effing freezing!” – it really was much cooler than we expected the whole time we were on our tour) as we set off on the Valley of the Winds walk, so named because according to Aboriginal tradition the wind, which is spirits guarding the area, always blows here. It was another flawless day, and yet again the scenery was gorgeous.
Heath also let us play with ochre – rocks that can be ground into powder of different colours. It’s the same material Aborigines use to paint themselves and to do their cave art. Not surprisingly, we Americans were the only ones to get really into it and paint our faces (we were, unexpectedly, the youngest ones on the tour, and I think sometimes we acted like it!), but it was fitting since it was Halloween, after all!
After finally finishing this 7.5km hike (Melissa, Krista and I eventually took the lead to get the walk finished – our group was a little slow and we were keen for lunch!), we ate and then headed for the reason most of us made the trip to the outback in the first place: Uluru (or Ayer’s Rock). It’s a super famous Aboriginal sacred site, one of Australia’s best known landmarks, and the largest monolith in the world. We just walked around a small portion of the base, stopping in different caves while Heath explained what they were for (one for kindergarten, one for giving birth, one for the kitchen, etc.). I was much more impressed than expected with the size of the rock; it is massive, both in terms of height and circumference. It reminded me of how I felt when I visited the Grand Canyon – even though it’s sort of “just a rock,” I could sit there and stare at it for hours without getting bored.
The texture was so interesting!
That night we made it to a sunset viewing spot to eat dinner and watch the sun set on Uluru. People absolutely rave about the fantastic colours of the rock as the sun sets on it, and while it was very pretty, I have to admit I was definitely more amazed by the rock’s size. As usual, Team America (Heath’s nickname for the three of us!) was acting silly and took some pictures in front of Uluru with our costumes – remember, it was Halloween!
Back at the campsite (at Ayer’s Rock Resort, much closer to civilization this time!), we cooked a kangaroo tail in a hole with burning ashes (I don’t think many real people actually eat kangaroo tail, it seemed like more of a gimmicky thing for the tourists) – that was gross – and found a huge spider and a 4 inch moth in the toilets. That made sleeping on the ground SUPER appealing!
Heath preparing kangaroo tail - questionable, at best...
The next morning was another early wakeup as we were headed back to Uluru to do the base walk (a little over 9km, but a flat path this time!) while the sun rose. Not gonna lie, I would have preferred eating breakfast before walking almost 10km, but seeing the rest of Uluru’s hugely varied textures and formations was a lovely way to wake up. After the base walk and breakfast we started the 6 hour drive back to Alice Springs, stopping at a camel farm on the way (you guessed it, Team America were some of the only ones to ride the camels – with Heath!!). We also tried to turn around after passing some wild camels so we could take pictures (we also saw wild horses that weekend!), but the bus got stuck in the dirt and we were unable to dig/push it out. Luckily some good Samaritans stopped and helped pull us out with their ute (pickup truck), but the front of the bus almost got ripped off in the process! I don’t think Heath thought that was as funny as the rest of us did…
The path for the base walk, and the odd and unexpected shape of Uluru
There was a HEART in the middle of the rock!
Aaaaand shambles!
That night the group met up at the hostel’s bar to have dinner and hang out – it was strange seeing everyone clean for once, many of us had been so scungy and shower-less all weekend! The next day was filled with travel as we headed back to Brisbane via Adelaide – we were in airports from 9:30am until 10pm! I’m really glad we went on this particular trip – it was a very different side of Australia to what we’ve gotten used to, and I don’t think it’s something many abroad students do. Of course, we also got the privilege of learning "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport," basically our tour's anthem for the weekend.
Once I was back at college, the fun was over for awhile as I had a big paper due Monday and a bigger final today…it’s been a rough week. The final was so intimidating too – it’s more or less like taking the SATs (ID required, test booklets, three not-so-friendly proctors, and hardcore time limits – all for an American lit exam!). But thankfully that’s all over now, and tonight was wonderful: Frances, Tamsyn, and Matt joined Andrea, Bec, and me for Beauty and the Geek Australia, How I Met Your Mother, and a “see you later” cake for Tamsyn as she heads off tomorrow! We also had some fun with frosting laybacks (usually done with alcohol, but sugar works just as well!) and the 700 balloons that are currently in the flat’s common room. Now, 700 sounds like a huge arbitrary number I chose for emphasis but no, Andrea and I actually blew up 700 balloons the other night and filled Bec’s room with them since she was away for a few days. I’m not sure how we will eventually get rid of them, but we’re letting future Andrea and future Elise deal with that!
Balloon play time!
La-la-love you all!
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